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Vietnamese modern arts |
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buffalo and the girl, oil on canvas, by Do Son |
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Creation of the Fine Arts College of Indochina
Up to 1925, Vietnamese paintings consisted of wood prints and pictures of pagodas by anonymous authors. Being cut off from the emerging art schools from Europe, Vietnamese artists never dared to move away form the traditional forms and matters.
The history of Vietnamese modern art began when the French established the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (Fine Arts College of Indochina – FACI. The principal founders of this College were Victor Tardieu (1870-1937) and Joseph Inguimberty (1896-1971).
Introducing painters to realism and symbolism, the College and its founder laid the foundation of Vietnamese modern art. Before 1925, Vietnamese artist had no clear conception of painting styles and forms. The College offered a window on the European painting styles in the early 20th century: fauvism, cubism, symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, futurism, abstractionism…
Keen to preserve the rich Vietnamese cultural heritage, Victor Tardieu and Joseph Inguimberty are credited with successfully introducing new techniques without “westernizing” the Vietnamese artists’ creations. The new generation was trained to apply western techniques to develop new expressions of their cultural heritage and social environment.
During its 20 years of operation (1925-1945), the College welcomed than 100 Vietnamese painters, sculptors and architects who emerged later on as the pioneers in Vietnamese modem art.
The emergence of a new artist generation during the war
In 1945, the Communist Party of Viet Nam (Viet Minh) led a general resistance against the French. The years of war and separation between the North and the South that followed (1945 to1975) mark the second stage of Vietnamese modern arts history.
The revolution movement gained rapid ground among Vietnamese artists and some of the most recognized artists such as To Ngoc Van or Tran Van Can followed the insurrection and formed a new artist generation in Hanoi.
The first national exhibition organized at the Municipal Theater of Hanoi in August 1946 gathered the works of various genres by the patriotic artists of Northern Vietnam: oil painting, pumice lacquer, gouache, water color, wood cutting, most of them treating subjects relating to the struggle of Vietnam for a new life. In 1948, after three years of war, the second national exhibition of fine arts was organized in a forest of palm trees (Xuan Ang village, Phu Tho province) with about 100 pictures, including silks, wood engravings, and drawings.
During those years of war, Northern Vietnamese painters put their art at the service of the revolution. Many of their creations represented scenes of war, chanting the bravery of Viet Minh soldiers. Meanwhile, a smaller group of famous Vietnamese artists such as Nguyen Gia Tri or Le Ba Dang remained in some big cities in the South.
After the Dien Bien Phu victory in 1954, the country was officially separated in two regions, the North and the South. Differences of forms and matters grew wider in Vietnamese modern arts, as the artists in the North trained under the socialistic drawing methods, while the artist in the South continued to experiment new techniques from diverse European schools to refine their own styles.
From social realism to today’s styles
In 1975, Vietnam was reunited. But the first years of peace were not marked by any change in modern art. Both the Northern and Southern artists followed their early style, in a quest to mark their cultural and political differences.
In 1985 the government made its first attempt to revitalize Vietnamese modern arts. Without forgetting their roots and cultural heritage, several Vietnamese artists, encouraged and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, appeared progressively on the international scene.
Most of the emerging contemporary artists focused then on Vietnam’s agricultural society, and the simple life of its people. Their work was often influenced by the works of art created by French artists Fougeron, and Taslitzky or by Italian artists Pizzinato, and Trecani. The simple colors and shapes formed the characteristics of a poetic and realistic style that was greatly appealing to western collectors.
Benefiting from the success of their predecessors, a new generation of Vietnamese artists emerged on the local and international scenes in the early nineties. Representing a vast array of themes and techniques, they are the driving forces of Vietnam’s modern art scene, one of richest and most diverse in Asia. |
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