Artist Dang Ai Viet
Born in 1948 in Tien Giang province, painter Dang Ai Viet was a war reporter for Women’s Liberation newspaper during the American war. She thoroughly understands the losses caused by war, and honors the sacrifices of all heroic Vietnamese mothers. At the age of 67, she has travelled across Vietnam to draw sketches of heroic Vietnamese mothers still living.
In a small apartment in Ho Chi Minh City’s district 5, heroic mother Pham Thi Thanh is living with her daughter and grandchildren. Ai Viet’s portrait of mother Thanh hangs on the main wall of the apartment. The portrait captured Thanh’s feelings of loss and pride in her husband and sons who died for the nation: "Ai Viet has succeeded in portraying me with all of my feelings. I was so happy the day she came to find me and told me her wish to sketch all the heroic Vietnamese mothers. I hope she has fulfilled her wish."
Ai Viet spends hours or even days living and talking with a heroic mother before she sketches her. She wants to thoroughly understand each mother she draws in order to fully and accurately capture their emotions. Mother Thanh’s daughter Ngoc Diep told VOV: "Just from talking and asking my mother simple questions, Ai Viet understands her well and has put all her heart in the sketch of my mother, which accurately reflects my mother’s emotions and desires."
On an old motorbike, Viet continues to travel around Vietnam and has completed thousands of portraits of heroic Vietnamese mothers. Viet said: "Each portrait is different. Each mother has a different look but they share similar feelings towards the fatherland. And their eyes in all the portraits look woeful and majestic at the same time."
Dang Ai Viet joined the revolution at the age of 15; she thoroughly understands that women, sisters, mothers, and aunts have made significant contributions to the national struggles for unification. She nurtured the idea of a “fine arts strategy’ to save pictures of heroic Vietnamese mothers when she was a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University. But it wasn’t until 2010, when she retired, that she was able to act on her idea. Viet again: "I often talk to myself and tell the comrades who died for the nation that I will do my best to make portraits of every heroic Vietnamese mother who is still alive, no matter where she lives. I hope all of them will wait to help me fulfil my wish."