A sculpture by the late artist Lê Công Thành at the exhibition in Mimosa Gallery. Photos courtesy of the Mimosa Gallery

HÀ NỘI Paintings and sculptures by artist couple Lê Công Thành and Nguyễn Thị Kim Thái are on display for the first time in Đà Lạt City, the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng.

The exhibition entitled Nguồn Cội (The Root) at the Mimosa Gallery introduces 40 paintings by the artist Thái and her late husband who has three of his sculptures on display.

"This is the first time the paintings and the sculptures by the two artists Thành and Thái have come to Đà Lạt public," said the gallery's representative at the exhibition opening ceremony. "This is not really an arrival but a return to the roots of art and the primary love of being creative."

Thành graduated from the Việt Nam College of Fine Arts in Hà Nội in 1962 and later the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow in 1970.

He is still considered one of the most pre-eminent sculptors of Việt Nam, embracing all the conflicts of culture and the fight between tradition and modern.

His best known work is a 30-metre high monument, Victory, made to commemorate the end of the war in his homeland Đà Nẵng. Smaller works are highly symbolic and dominated by the human figure, the pristine beauty, purity and charm of a woman.

The exhibition is also showing 19 of his oil paintings, which Thành created on different materials such as fabric, wood and paper. According to Thái, her husband would start painting as a way of relaxing after hours of hard work with sculpting.

Thành was one of the first artists to receive the State Award for Literature and Art in 2001.

"Artworks by Thành would be suitable for the open spaces of Đà Lạt City which is Creative Music City recognised by UNESCO. If Thành's sculptures were enlarged and put in public spaces, it would make the city even more beautiful," Nguyễn Cao Cường, director of Mimosa Gallery, said.

Thái's 21 paintings in the gallery, predominantly in oil, focus on maternal and woman's beauty.

An oil on canvas painting by Nguyễn Thị Kim Thái.

Thái was born in 1943 in Hà Nội and graduated from the Hà Nội School of Industrial Fine Arts, which is where she met and got married to Thành.

Thái's paintings, often on a nude theme, often focus on beauty.

On her artistic journey, over more than half a century, she has carved out a space with her outstanding female natural paintings, in a realistic style, reflecting the original beauty of women.

The exhibition runs until May 27 at the Mimosa Gallery, 17 Phù Đổng Thiên Vương, Đà Lạt City. VNS