Charcoal - A material of local identity
Nguyen An, a painter from Hue born in 1987, has chosen charcoal made from pine wood as the main material for his artworks depicting Da Lat.
In his work, charcoal is seen as a local material closely tied to Da Lat. It has strong physical qualities and a high level of expression, making it suitable for conveying layers of memory, including culture, history and nature. The material also allows for a wide range of tones and rough textures, evoking images of fire, forests, time and natural change.
Through his use of charcoal, Nguyen An explores more than just the transformation of nature. His paintings also reflect concerns about the loss of traditional cultural values, as well as the balance between resource use and conservation, and the relationship between people and the natural environment.
He describes charcoal as the trace of a transformed life, where forest trees have been burned and now exist in a different material state. For him, it is a way to revisit shared memories through personal creative experience.
Nguyen An uses his artistic approach to present Da Lat’s cultural layers in a modern and individual way. His work creates a dialogue between the past and the present, while pointing towards a future built on local cultural foundations combined with new forms of expression.
He says that the choice of material is not his main concern. Whether using charcoal, lacquer, oil paint, acrylic, silk or other materials, they are simply tools. What matters more are real-life observations and emotional experiences, which shape the colours and textures in his paintings. He uses pine charcoal in particular because he sees it as part of Da Lat’s memory.
The use of charcoal not only gives his work a distinctive style but also reflects an effort to preserve and renew local cultural values. By combining charcoal with acrylic, he creates rough surfaces alongside expanded visual depth, linking traditional cultural elements with contemporary life.
According to painter Vi Quoc Hiep, chairman of the Art Council of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association in Lam Dong, Nguyen An’s paintings contain a complex range of emotions. They are both bright and melancholic, beautiful yet marked by a sense of tension. Time in his work appears compressed, with layers of personal and collective memory unfolding slowly, reflecting the rhythm of Da Lat and its people.