Lam Triet Gets Inspired By Angkor Wat

Monday, July 21, 2008

I have to admit that I'm a little envious of people who can do things like paint and draw - because all I've ever been able to do is put together some stick figures, and even those don't really even look like anything.

I guess I could lament about it and hang my head in shame, but what fun would there be in that (and truth be told, I really like making stick figures and think they're kind of cute)?

A better use of my time would be to highlight someone like Lam Triet who's a real artist:

Triet first visited Cambodia with HCM City’s Committee for Overseas Vietnamese as part of a programme to donate medicine and food to poor Vietnamese living in the country.

"I was deeply impressed with the sculptures carved on Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat hundreds of years ago," Triet said. "I wanted to express part of that beauty in my works."

He said he was especially struck by the depiction of apsaras, considered to be heavenly nymphs in Hindu mythology, on Cambodia’s temples.

The 36-painting exhibition An Tuong Angkor (Impressions of Angkor) includes depictions of apsara dancers and stone figures on the Bayon temple.

Triet was born in 1938 in Binh Dinh Province and studied painting at Hue and Sai Gon Fine Arts schools.
Read more about Triet at Viet Nam News.