Ly Truc Son’s artistic path is one of introspection and resilience. Educated at the Vietnam College of Fine Arts (now Vietnam University of Fine Arts), where he later taught, he was shaped by two currents - one, the disciplined rigor of academic tradition; the other, the restless pursuit of modernity, inspired by the works of Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, and Bui Xuan Phai. In 1989, a scholarship to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris unraveled his understanding of art - not as a method, but as a question: Why do we create? Rather than how something is made, he sought to understand why - a shift that would redefine his practice. After nearly a decade in Europe, he returned to Vietnam in 1998, continuing his unspoken dialogue with the past and present.
Born in Hue, shaped by the Red River Delta, and tempered by years abroad, Ly Truc Son moves between worlds. His art is not of spectacle but of stillness - where lacquer holds the breath of time, paper remembers the weight of ink, and earth cradles the imprint of human touch. As sculptor Dao Chau Hai reflects, "Beneath the rugged, elemental surfaces of his work lies an elegance - graceful, hushed, yet deeply resonant. It is the quiet beauty of Vietnamese aesthetics, unadorned yet enduring."