Some opinions about the artist’s work, according to press extracts here-joined :
“How attractive are the delicate artworks presented by the young artists Nguyễn Anh, Chuong, Nguyễn Sao and Tran Minh Tho with their silk and lacquer paintings ! How skilful is their technique ! The exquisite refinement of their arrangements with their learned setting, their expressive drawing and their joyful colours, don’t remove the sensitiveness that give them the very quivering of life and fresh air of a morning in spring when the cherry trees are in blossom! We wouldn’t know what to choose in this ensemble where each painting attracts, arrests and charms the eye.”
Lettres et Arts, Paris 1948
“Nguyễn Sao is an “impressionist” by instinct, that the discipline of the prestigious Fine-Arts and Decorative-Arts Schools in Paris where he was educated, moderates… In his manner, Nguyễn Sao is a poet. Thanks to his profound sensibility, impressionism is only for him a way to express what emerges from the tradition of the past but also from the present time influence… When contemplating Nguyễn Sao‘s paintings, and discovering such delicate and natural feelings, we are so moved by their pure expression, that it doesn’t seem that of one talent. But it is precisely this purity which is his trait. Nguyễn Sao was a born artist.”
Le Van Xa, La Gazette, Saïgon 1957
“We will love what is “classic”, even in the calculated boldness of an incredibly rich palette, daring brightful tints, but knowing too how to shade them in a landscape, according to time and season… Nguyễn Sao’s talent is quite certain to allow itself no artifice. There is no yielding to flashy style in these researches showing great details and which are translated by the diversity of colours and lights...“
Pierre Faucon, Journal d’Extrême-Orient, Saïgon 1959
“… This style is quite unusual here, and among groups of various artists, it may surprise or displease because it’s so different, high in tones, with some kind of tragic elaborated skies in forms and colours…“
Marc Planchon, Journal d’Extrême-Orient, Saïgon 1960
“We have to notice in this artist, an evolution in comparison with his works before 1960 or 1961. He transforms his matter in simplifying it : in fact he gives up shaded tones to follow the present trend of pure colours and adopts geometric forms while reducing in drawing all that isn’t necessary for its character… “
Marc Planchon, Journal d’Extrême-Orient, Saïgon 1962
“To some journalists who payed him a visit in his workshop last Sunday, Nguyễn Sao declared that he was mainly concerned with the intensity of colours, the harmony of volumes and the stylization of drawing… The intensity of colours is revealed in gouaches, specially in Twilight on the market, realized with warm colours. Among oil paintings, we notice some works painted with a light touch, as Concert of music, where tints of grey-blue, yellow-pink, light-pink, pink-purple are in complete harmony with the blurred figures. The entire work is vaporous…”.
Géo Nam, Viêt-Nam presse, Saïgon 1963
“In his paintings, Nguyễn Sao expresses the sensibility of two countries he belongs to : the land of his origin, Viêt-Nam, and the one where he lives by periods, France. The mark of his work is impressionism… He knows all about our skies and landscapes, but it is Viêt-Nam he wishes to talk about..”
Maison de la Culture, Poitiers 1974
“An important exhibition of Nguyễn Sao‘s silk and lacquer paintings, showing the technique and the original Asian process, enhanced by the refinement, the subjectivity achieved by this Vietnamese artist… He transposes aesthetic nudes, underlining the model’s beauty according to the Greco-roman canon. But for some years, Nguyễn Sao has evolved towards expressionnism with a light, discreet touch of cubism. Compositions, portraits and sceneries are displayed in his exhibition“.
Galerie Tkim Quynh, Paris 1978
“… Nguyễn Sao isn’t unknown in the Spa city. Last season, he gained the amateurs’ hearts with his first exhibition in our Caldagués region… He is coming back this year, with Viêt-Nam again as a source of inspiration.
Native of this country, he has never made his mind to forget his homeland he paints in a very original manner. Through his paintings pervaded with some nostalgia, he shows us scenes invaded with light, freshness, joy too, enhanced by an expressive and brightly-coloured drawing…”
La Montagne, Chaudes-Aigues 1989