‘You are still beautiful when wearing a face mask’ is not only the meaningful campain recently launched by the Ministry of Health, but it also shows perspectives and artistic expression in artworks created by domestically renowned painter Le Sa Long with the aim of calling on people across Viet Nam to wear a mask properly to stem the spread of Covid-19.

Painter Le Sa Long beside his publicly-launded paintings

Painter Long, who is currently a member of the HCM City Fine Arts Association cum lecturer in Graphics from the HCM City Open University, recently made debuts of his own paintings whose subjects are domestic and foreign celebrities wearing face masks, completely tailored to suit the style of each painting.

The 60x80cm oil pastel paintings, available on his personal Facebook page, not only feature famous figures in Viet Nam and around the world, but they also depict the contemporary fact: Covid-19 has made the public habit of wearing face masks a social norm.

Apart from domestic celebrities, also on the spotlight of Long’s paintings are the images of such internationally renowned people as genius scientist Albert Einstein, Cuban national hero Che Guevara, ‘technology witch’ Steve Jobs, martial arts actor Bruce Lee, Princess Diana and British writer J. K. Rowling, the author of a series of fantasy novels Harry Potter.

“It is not difficult for me to create my portraits of famous celebrities, the most challenging task is to highlight the hidden story behind the masks so that viewers can understand more about their real personalities”, remarked painter Long.

The majority of the paintings features individual portraits, but there is still the only one, which showcases ‘Four Great Beauties of the World Arts coming to Ho Chi Minh City during Pandemic’, dubbed as an interesting highlight of the painting collection. 

This special artwork features ‘Mona Lisa’ in a namesake masterpiece by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, ‘The Birth of Venus’ by Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In particular, the scenery behind is an impressive nighttime view of Saigon featuring the iconic Landmark 81 tower and Bitexco building hidden under the sky in footsteps of the painting style of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, one of the world's greatest artists,

His elaborate creation of the artworks is aimed at spreading positive and optimistic energy.  “Creating beautiful drawings is not our major goal now. Actually, we draw to raise public awareness of pandemic prevention, especially on how much protection face masks offer to the public”, painter Long affirmed.  In fact, the virus is transmitted through droplets of saliva, so a face mask will always decrease the radius of those droplets.

It is expected that his collection will be put on display in public places in HCM in mid-September. 
If the pandemic is still complicated in the country, the painter will collaborate with annual music and fashion show ‘Charming Viet Nam’, to jointly organise a virtual exhibition under which his artworks will be auctioned, and 50% of the collected auctioning revenues will be donated to the country’s pandemic combat.

At this time, art is the only way for the ‘artists’ to connect with others.  It’s worth lauding that domestic painters are resolute in their strong response: “In Viet Nam, the national government says we are at war with the virus,”  “So, as artists, we do our job in a war: we draw.”

By NAM BINH – Translated by A.T