May Sunlight, 1975-2006, oil painting, Life seeds inside the tunnel, lacquer painting, Ruin, 1975, oil painting

Quach Phong was born in 1938 in Vinh Long, South Vietnam. He went to North Vietnam when he was 17 years old, and graduated from the College of Fine Arts Hanoi in 1962. When he was 25, he returned to South Vietnam, working in the Propaganda troop of the North Vietnamese army. He went to Cambodia on a special mission for two years. After 1975, he worked in the Fine Arts Association of Ho Chi Minh City until his retirement. He was an important figure in the development of the Association after the war.

Quach Phong first exhibited in National Fine Arts Exhibition when he was only 25. Over the course of his long career he has built up a huge body of work. Remembering his years as army artist during the war, Quach Phong said:  ”The soldiers would ask me to draw their portraits in case they died. Handmade pictures of them were a kind of evidence. This way they thought they would have a tiny part of history. They told me about their hopes and dreams while I drew them. They liked watching me draw it made them feel calm. My purpose was not to shock the audience. I drew for the soldiers."
(Interviewed by Sherry Buchanan)