Artist, sculptor and Colonel Le Duy Ung (a grade 1/4 wounded soldier), the soldier who once used blood from his eye to paint a portrait of Uncle Ho. Now, following the death of General Vo Nguyen Giap, his damaged eyes have reddened once more, and, choking with emotion, he tells of the General and continues to paint him from his imagination.
Artist Le Duy Ung painting the General.
The man who brought my life back
“I was on my way back to my home province of Quang Binh after storm No. 10 when my younger sister phoned to tell me the General had died. It felt as if the sky had fallen. So Uncle Van had gone — the great tree of the Vietnamese revolution, the elder brother of the Vietnam People's Army, the man who brought my life back after enemy bullets damaged my eyes. I know it is the law of nature, but I could not hold back my tears. Filled with boundless grief for him, I hurriedly hitched a ride to Le Thuy, the General's home town, to light a stick of incense. When I saw his statue, I hugged it and wept. Then I quickly went to Hanoi to pay my respects to the General at his private home at 30 Hoang Dieu”, Colonel Le Duy Ung said, moved.
Colonel Le Duy Ung was a fellow Quang Binh native of the General. After finishing high school, he became a student at the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. Before completing his third year, answering the call of the nation, Le Duy Ung put aside his studies to fight against American imperialism. After training at Nha Nam (Yen The, Bac Giang), he became a reconnaissance soldier, fighting while using his artistic talent to capture historic moments and encourage his comrades.
On the morning of 28 April 1975, during the battle for the Nuoc Trong base, 30 kilometres from the gateway to Saigon, Le Duy Ung was sitting on tank 847, filming, photographing and sketching, when an enemy anti-tank gun shot off the tank's right track. The tank spun across the road, throwing Le Duy Ung onto the roadside, where he lost consciousness. Ung recalled: “When I woke up and felt the comrade beside me, he had died, and my eye was hanging out, my body covered in blood. I thought I would surely die, because I was so badly wounded yet still conscious. People are often very lucid before they die. Between life and death, I first thought of Uncle Ho, then of the famous painter Diep Minh Chau, who painted a picture in blood on behalf of the people of the South as a gift to Uncle Ho. So I took the blood oozing from my eye and, using my finger instead of a brush, painted a portrait of Uncle Ho against a background of the red flag with a yellow star fluttering in the wind. The painting was called “Light – Faith”, with the caption “I vow to offer you my youth…”. When I finished the painting, I passed out, and when I woke up I realised I was not dead.” His comrades rescued him and took him to the Nha Trang military hospital for a month's treatment before transferring him to Military Hospital 108, but his eyes could no longer see.
Artist Le Duy Ung photographed with the General.
Ung recalled: “For an ordinary person, losing one's eyes is already a great loss; for a painter, losing one's eyes leaves nothing. At that time, I was so discouraged that I just wanted to die, and many times I thought of taking my own life. But with encouragement from my comrades and from Dr. Dao Xuan Tra (deputy director of Hospital 108), who advised me to try sculpture, saying that without eyes my hands could still feel, I began to learn to sculpt.”
One day at the hospital, while groping his way through sculpting a statue of Uncle Ho in clay, the artist heard a warm, familiar voice with a Quang Binh accent: “Ung, you are really talented; you have very sensitive hands.” Startled, he asked: “Who is it?” The voice said: “The General… It is the General.” Recognising the General, Ung was stunned.
Ung said: “I was deeply moved. I was just an ordinary soldier — how could I dare to think the General would visit me in person? Back home, my house was indeed near the General's, but I had only seen him in pictures and heard about him, never met him. My father joined the army in 1947 and spent his whole military life without once meeting the General, yet now I, with my damaged eyes, had the honour of his visit.” The General asked him warmly: “Ung, do you know in which period the genius composer Beethoven wrote his finest music?” Before Ung could answer, he continued: “That was when he was deaf in both ears. A musician needs sound above all, yet he was deaf in both ears, just as a painter needs lines and light yet cannot see. Take his example and strive on.” Those words woke the artist up.
Nearly 1,000 paintings of the General
After eight years living in darkness, in 1982 Le Duy Ung had a successful eye transplant, and he continued on his artistic path. Uncle Ho, General Vo Nguyen Giap and the revolutionary war have always been an endless source of inspiration in his work.
As fellow natives, the artist and the General quickly became close. Whenever the General was not busy, Ung would take his sketchpad to the General's house and ask to paint him. Whenever a painting turned out well, he would sign it and give it to the General.
He has painted thousands of pictures of the General. In 1989, the artist sketched a portrait of the General at an art exhibition; the General liked the sketch Ung gave him very much and hung it in the centre of his living room.
In the years that followed, Le Duy Ung's eyes gradually dimmed until he could no longer see at all. Unable to see the light, he still continued to paint and sculpt the General. The image of the “Elder Brother” was deeply imprinted in the mind of the old soldier-artist. In 2005, he went to Japan for another eye operation. Admiring the artist's willpower, the General personally wrote a letter asking the airline to help his family travel free of charge. He received treatment but recovered only part of his vision. While being treated in Japan, far from home and facing many difficulties, he still painted four portraits of the General and gave the finest one to him.
I was lucky enough to watch the artist paint a portrait of the General one late afternoon. The old artist, with his damaged eyes, unable to tell the colours apart, carefully drew each line on a large sheet of paper, and about 20 minutes later the painting was finished. It was a picture of the General patting a soldier on the shoulder, painted with the emotion and affection he felt for him. It was just one of nearly 1,000 paintings Le Duy Ung has painted of the General over the past 47 years.
As someone close to the General who often visited his home, Le Duy Ung said: “One day, the General invited me to stay for a meal. The General's meal of braised fish, boiled water spinach, sour soup and salted aubergine surprised me.”
The General is recognised worldwide as a military genius, but to the blind artist, he was a very simple man who always saw himself as a drop of water in the ocean, a leaf in the forest.
Le Duy Ung was born in 1947 in Co Hien village, Hien Ninh commune, Quang Ninh district (Quang Binh), and is a member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association. Uncle Ho, General Vo Nguyen Giap and the revolutionary war have always been an endless source of inspiration in his work.
He has held 44 exhibitions and won nine fine arts and sculpture awards at home and abroad. To date, Le Duy Ung's artistic legacy includes more than 3,000 paintings, 600 statues and 500 battlefield sketches.
Phan Quang Loc – http://www.tienphong.vn