GRAMMAR OF ALLUVIAL SYMBOLISM IN LE DYNASTY PAINTINGS

FROM IMAGE TO VISUAL SYMBOLISM: A JOURNEY OF SELF-BREAKING

Born and raised in Southern Vietnam, Le Trieu Dien (born 1943, Ben Tre) belongs to the generation of post-war artists – those who both inherited and quietly shifted Vietnamese art away from the academic orbit towards deeply individualized practices. The exhibition “Accompanying” at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts (January 28–February 3, 2026) can be seen as a necessary stop, allowing us to look back not only at individual works, but at the entire journey of forming an intrinsic visual structure.

From a holistic perspective, Lê Triều Điển's paintings do not aim to create images in the sense of reproduction, but rather gradually form a writing surface where visual traces operate as symbols, and meaning is always in a state of intermingling and diffusion. From this perspective, the transformation in his practice should be understood not as a change in style, but as a deeper process: a shift from image to language.

In the early stages, his paintings still bear traces of a realistic approach to visual thinking, depicting scenes of life on the water, the precarious fates of people, and spaces that retain a relatively stable organization. However, even within this seemingly "realistic" structure, the images begin to weaken their own function of representation: forms deviate from anatomy, colors are no longer purely descriptive, and lines gradually become independent.

These "deviations" are not simply expressions of individuality, but rather cracks in the visual structure, signs that the image is gradually losing its role as a direct illustration and transforming into a symbol. At the semi-abstract stage, where the image of a young woman or a plain landscape is treated as rhythmic structures rather than descriptive objects, this process becomes evident: form is no longer the destination, but merely a temporary means of organizing visual relationships.

It is in this stage that we can recognize the transitions to "pre-symbolic alluvial" forms: lines detach from their role as outlines to become autonomous traces, and color blocks escape from concrete space to operate as force fields. When entering the stage of abstract expression, the image almost completely disintegrates, giving way to a dense field of symbols, where visual traces no longer directly refer to visible objects.

However, this disintegration is not a complete break, but rather a process of accumulation. Images don't disappear, but are dissolved into the symbolic structure like layers of sediment accumulating over time. The "sedimentary symbolic grammar," therefore, is not a sudden invention, but the result of a self-destructive journey: images deconstruct themselves to become language.

SEDIMENTAL SYNONYMOUS GRAMMAR: WRITING, SEDIMENTATION, AND SEMANTIC INTERFERENCE

If traditional painting focuses on images, then in Le Trieu Dien's practice, the painting can be understood as a writing surface, where visual traces function as symbols. The "sedimentary symbolic grammar" is not merely a metaphor, but a real structure: an open system where symbols are built up, superimposed, and transformed like layers of sediment.

"Alluvial soil" here is not merely a geographical image, but a principle: continuous accumulation, yet never stable. Each layer of color, each brushstroke, each scratch mark is an act of recording, a form of inscription, where time, memory, and emotion are materialized. The painting becomes a stratum, where layers of meaning overlap, concealing and simultaneously activating each other.

Within this structure, the symbols do not exist at a uniform level of abstraction, but span a universal spectrum: some symbols retain vague traces of collective cultural memory—reminiscent of folk structures, particularly from the life of the Southern Khmer; while others are entirely abstract, without any direct reference.

This simultaneous existence creates a mechanism of semantic interplay. Abstract symbols are no longer "empty," but are placed within a field of association thanks to the presence of symbols imbued with cultural significance. Conversely, cultural symbols do not retain their original meaning, but are blurred, dispersed, and their meaning diffused in relation to the surrounding abstract elements. No symbol maintains a fixed center of meaning; meaning does not lie within each symbol, but in the distance and relationships between them.

This mechanism helps Le Trieu Dien's system of symbols avoid two extremes: neither falling into cultural illustration nor into pure abstraction. Instead, the "alluvial symbols" operate in an intermediate state, both subtly imbued with cultural nuances and maintaining the openness of abstraction.

However, the uniqueness of this language lies not only in its structure, but also in its operation. The artist consciously constructs a unique system of symbols while simultaneously refusing to fixate it. There is no complete "alphabet"; each painting is a reactivation of the language in an unfinished state. The symbols are repeated, but always distorted, deviating from the norm, or even self-contradictory.

It is precisely in the tension between construction and release—between language and the slip away from language—that the “alluvial symbolic grammar” truly operates. It is not a closed system, but a constantly renewing structure where rules exist only as trends. Painting, therefore, is no longer the deployment of a system of symbols, but a process of meaning creation occurring simultaneously with the act of painting.

EMOTIONAL ENERGY AND POSITIONING IN CONTEMPORARY ART

Although visual language has evolved through different periods, there is a consistent element in Le Trieu Dien's paintings: powerful and direct emotional energy. His brushstrokes always possess a certain “heat,” a sense of the immediate presence of the creative act. The marks on the surface of the paintings do not show cold calculation, but seem to be recorded in the state of emotion at hand.

This is precisely why his painting does not become a mere formal game, despite its abstract characteristics. There is no need for "showmanship," nor any dependence on external paradigms. The entire practice seems to be guided by a stream of personal experiential memory – a form of "emotional memory" accumulated from life and cultural space.

If the "grammar of alluvial symbols" is the structure, then emotional energy is the driving force that prevents that structure from becoming rigid. It makes each painting not a repetition, but a renewal. The symbols, however familiar, always appear in a different state – recharged with energy, placed in a new context.

From this perspective, Le Trieu Dien's painting journey can be understood as an "alluvial journey" on both levels: form and emotion. Each layer of symbol is not just a visual unit, but a layer of accumulated experience. Painting does not reflect the world, but forms meaning within the very flow of experience.

In the context of contemporary Vietnamese art, his practice suggests a noteworthy direction: not seeking identity by reproducing tradition, but by constructing a language capable of transforming cultural experience into visual structure. Identity, therefore, is no longer content, but a pervasive effect.

It can be said that Le Trieu Dien does not belong to the orbit of Indochinese art, nor is he dependent on Western abstract paradigms, but operates as a self-generating language – formed from within indigenous cultural experience. It is in this region that his painting is not entirely new in the sense of a complete break, but neither is it old, existing as a state of ongoing development, opening up possibilities for interpretation that remain unclosed.

NGUYEN THANH BINH