Musical paintings by French artist opened in Hanoi

A painting exhibition inspired by music by French artist Jacob Reymond lets visitors scan QR code to listen to the songs that inspired the paintings.

A painting exhibition inspired by music by French artist Jacob Reymond lets visitors scan QR code to listen to the songs that inspired the paintings.

 

A visitor at the exhibition

The exhibition is being held at French Cultural Centre L'Espace in Hanoi until August 31.

Reymond uses ink and acrylic on canvas and his paintings are inspired by both modern and classical music like Jean-Sébastien Bach, Steve Reich, Pascal Dusapin, Wolfgang Rhim, and Philippe Hersant.

Thierry Vergon, director of the centre, said the exhibition also showed the close relationship of France and Vietnam. Reymond's wife is Vietnamese so he understands Vietnam and he wants to open an exhibition in Hanoi for Vietnamese visitors.

Reymond said after a few years, he abandoned paintings to go on an adventure to discover other artistic practices like theatre, music and cinema. He had met many people and learned many new things before taking up the paintbrush again seriously. Since music is one of his passions, he always paints with music and then, paints the music.

 

Thierry Vergon, director of the French Cultural Centre L'Espace

Nguyen Minh Thuy, one of the visitors at the exhibition, said, "I think the exhibition and the QR codes are very interesting. Your mood changed when you moved from painting to painting. Music and painting accompany and complement each other."

The exhibition had been postponed due to Covid-19. Writer and music researcher Jacques Amblard said: “When Reymond performs, he not only simply acts as an actor, a musician or a painter, separately, but he is a person combining the values of all those three figures. Beyond the art, the audience can find it’s a playful child, a searching man, or a metaphysical game.”

  

Musical paintings by Jacob Reymond

Reymond started painting at an early age at his workshop in Vauvenargues, Sainte Victoire in France. Due to Covid-19, he couldn't go to Vietnam so he held an online exchange with the visitors at the opening. The visitors could make questions to him about his artworks.