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Vietnamese
Modern Paintings - The Pioneers
By Quang Phong, Quang Viet and H.C.
Vietnam is moving
forward. The Vietnamese are not only looking ahead to their future,
however, but also making an effort to sort out their past. Recently they
have come to terms with the origin of their modern art. For many years,
this has been a sensitive.jpg) topic
as Vietnamese modern art began as a
joint product of French liberalism and Vietnamese traditionalism during
a period of brutal French colonialism and strong Vietnamese patriotism.
Before doi moi
(renovation) began in 1986, the origin of Vietnamese modern art was
little discussed in Vietnam because such a discussion would necessarily
touch upon the role of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de
l'Indochine (Indochina Fine Arts College) founded by the liberal- minded
French artist Victor Tardieu. During its 20 years of operation
(1925-1945), the Ecole trained more than 100 Vietnamese painters,
sculptors and architects who formed the core group of pioneers in
Vietnamese modem art. Even though the Vietnamese pioneers were primarily
inspired and driven in their artistic creation by Vietnamese tradition,
the Ecole was thought to be too closely associated with French
colonialism to deserve mention.
Recent events, however,
have pointed to a conscious effort to put things in balance, recognizing
both the catalyst role of the Ecole and the crucial contribution of the
Vietnamese pioneer artists in the development of Vietnamese modern art.
In 1996, the Government awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize, the most
prestigious recognition in Vietnam, to seven Vietnamese artists, all of
whom graduated from the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine.
On 9 May 2000, the Hanoi College of Fine Arts and other local art
institutions sponsored a large reunion of former students of the Ecole
and their relatives to mark the Ecole's 75th anniversary. In the
atmosphere of greater openness, local art researchers have agreed on the
foundation of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine in 1925
as the starting date of Vietnamese modem art. Up to 1925, Vietnamese art
had relied on its centuries-old graphic tradition such as the creation
of Dong Ho wood prints and pictures in pagodas by anonymous authors, but
it had never formed part of the global art trends. Being cut off from
well-known art schools in Europe, Vietnamese art could only speak its
own language.
 Recognizing the beauty of
Vietnamese artistic traditions, Victor Tardieu and his colleague Joseph
lnguimberty were determined to help the indigenous students to better
exploit their heritage by exposing them to standard examples of both
Vietnamese and French art. The two French artists placed greater
emphasis on Vietnamese tradition for fear that their students might be
otherwise Westernized. However, Vitor Tardieu and Joseph Inguimberty
pointed out that this return to the past could only be effective if it
served as the starting point for further developments better suited to
today's world; therefore the Vietnamese students were also well taught
about Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and
Pierre Auguste Renoir among others.
Silk painting with
Vietnamese style
Vietnamese silk painting
began, paradoxically, as a result of Nguyen Phan Chanh's failure at
Western oil painting. Nguyen Phan Chanh was among the students of the
first class (1925-1930) of the Eeole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de
l'Indochine. Vitor Tardieu quickly realized that Chanh's natural
endowment was not suitable for Western oil painting, so he advised Chanh
to shift to Oriental painting. Victor Tardieu helped Chanh to study
Chinese paintings of the Tang and Song periods so that Chanh could
develop his own style for doing Vietnamese silk painting. Chanh became
fascinated by the beauty of Chinese silk paintings because he found in
them the expression of the soul of the objects rather than the mere
depiction of their surface. He did not try to imitate the Chinese,
however. Chanh's was a simple style, combining Oriental and Western
techniques.
He composed his paintings
with a Western approach but employed light and dark patches of the East
Asian tradition. His paintings are attractive because of the lyricism
created by the interaction of brown, soil yellow and light grey colours
with fine silk. People praise Chanh's silk paintings as uniquely
Vietnamese. At a 1931 exhibition in Paris, his silk painting Game of
Squares was warmly welcomed by the visitors. Nguyen Phan Chanh has
become the leading representative of Vietnamese silk painting.
.jpg) Following Chanh's lead,
other students of his class such as Le Pho, Mai Trung Thu, Nguyen Tuong
Lan, Le Thi Luu, Tran Van Can and Luong Xuan Nhi also started painting
on silk while continuing to do oil painting. Together the group created
a collection of fine silk paintings that embodied the Vietnamese soul
and tradition. In Nguyen Tuong Lan's Blossoming Beauty, a young lady
sits gracefully on a porcelain stool against the background of dark
brown, giving the impression of musical rhythms typical of silk. Mai
Trung Thu preferred studies of young ladies with sad, tearful eyes
against the dark indigo background, suggesting a vague nostalgia. Le Van
De focused on the genteel, slender beauty of upper-class ladies,
rendering details of the hair, the face and the hands, but leaving the
rest to merge into the mystic blurred veil of colours. Because of the
nature of silk, objects rendered on silk easily become blurred and
vague. Tran Van Can and Luong Xuan Nhi, however, were able to make the
clouds, smokes, trees, faces and hands in their paintings stand out
clearly without sacrificing the gentleness inherent in the farbic.
Nguyen Tien Chung is said to be a born silk painter, as objects in his
paintings appear soft, gentle and rhythmic, while his use of colours
varies from simplicity to exuberance, and his representations alternate
between folkloric stylization and academic rendition.
Thanks to the work of
these painters, Vietnamese silk painting gradually asserted itself as a
unique school, not a mere copy of Chinese silk painting.
The effects of
traditional lacquer
Lacquer was discovered as
a medium in painting by sheer accident, but it quickly conquered both
artists and art connoisseurs. One day, Vietnamese painter Nam Son took
J. lmguimberty to the Temple of Literature to paint. There, the French
artist was struck by the charming colour of the lacquer paint on the
centuries-old wooden altars, boards of ancient writings, and beams. J.
Inguimberty then suggested to his students to apply the traditional
lacquer technique to painting.
Among the many local
artists that researched the new medium, Nguyen Gia Tri was the first one
to succeed. Though he applied both Western and modem painting
approaches, the lacquer techniques he used were purely Vietnamese.
Nguyen Gia Tri set the norms for lacquer painting. Looking at his
paintings, one always has the impression that they are reflections of
objects beneath an even, clear water surface. Amid layers of shiny amber
materials, the gentle young ladies came to life, moving, standing,
sitting, chasing butterflies, picking flowers, or strolling by a lotus
lake. The different details combine into rhythmic undulations to create
a mixed contrast of simplicity and luxury. Some of his works created
during the early 1940s - at the height of his success - such as By the
Side of Restored Sword Lake and Spring Garden, are still valued as
masterpieces of Vietnamese lacquer painting. Other lacquer painters such
as Tran Van Can, Nguyen Van Ty, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Le Pho, Nguyen Khang,
Pham Hau and Tran Quang Tran were less successful than Nguyen Gia Tri,
but they all contributed to asserting the uniqueness of Vietnamese
lacquer painting. The themes they often employed were landscapes,
temples and pagodas, bridges, bamboo groves, rivers, the sea and
mountains. Of particular interest is Tran Van Can7s folding screen
Farewell to a Candidate to the Triennial Literary Examination which
depicts a scene of villagers seeing off a candidate to the royal
examination, using folkloric stylization and traditional lacquer colours
of crimson, black, brown and gold..jpg)
Another group of lacquer
painters including Pham Duc Cuong, Le Quoc Loc, Nguyen Van Que, Ta Ty
and Manh Quynh developed lacquer painting into decorative art, inclining
towards dark colour, solemnity and antiquity.
Oil as a new medium
Both V. Tardieu and J.
Inguimberty attached great importance to training in oil painting
techniques, but they never believed that the Vietnamese could succeed in
using this difficult medium.
The adventurous To Ngoc
Van, however, did not hesitate to take the plunge. He saw in the linseed
oil a special quality that could help him capture moments of nature in a
twinkle of an eye. He employed the highest degree of tint to create the
mystic beauty of the landscape of the Ba Vi Mountain and the Da River.
In a short period he created hundreds of oil paintings, using the themes
of Ha Long Bay, the Perfume Pagoda, Buddhist monks in Phnom Penh and
peasants in the fields. Some of his paintings which have become
Vietnamese classics are A Girl by Lilies, A Girl by Lotus, At Noon, A
Girl Leaning against the Gate, and Under the Shadow. To Ngoc Van used a
combination of indigo and brown that emphasized the body lines of young
girls, and a mixture of rhythm, lighting and colour that suggests the
vitality of life. In 1939, To Ngoc Van became a lecturer at the Ecole
Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine and helped train a generation
of talented artists such as Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Nguyen Sang, Bui Xuan Phai,
Duong Bich Lien, Huynh Van Gam, Mai Van Hien and Phan Ke An.
Other oil painters
including Le Pho, Mai Trung Thu, Vu Cao Dam, Le Thi Luu, Tran Van Can,
Luu Van Sin, Nguyen Do Cung and Luong Xuan Nhi also created works of
great artistic value. Tran Van Can painted the Portrait of Little Thuy
after the style of Dutch painter Vermeer de Delft. Luu Van Sin created
Young Man and the Rose Horse in natural light and colour. Nguyen Tu
Nghiem used the contrast of white and green in his painting The Guardian
of the Temple of Literature. Nguyen Sang mostly dealt with the theme of
the struggle for national independence. Bui Xuan Phai charmed
connoisseurs with scenes of ancient Hanoi streets.
The period of 1925-1945
is very short compared with the history of Vietnamese art, but it
constitutes the formative years of Vietnamese modern art. Through their
French teachers at the Eole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine,
the then young generation of Vietnamese artists were able to benefit
from Western art techniques and knew how to apply them in exploiting
Vietnam's heritage of traditional art. Upon the foundation the first
generation of Vietnamese artists had built, the latter generations
continued to create works of patriotic nature during the French and then
American wars. And today's generation of Vietnamese artists is
experimenting with contemporary genres such as installation, but they
continue to reflect the tradition of modern art so far developed in
their works. In doing justice to the pioneers of modern art, including
the French teachers at Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine,
Vietnamese artists today have the roots to nurture themselves in their
ventures into the world of modem art..jpg)
The master of oil
painting
To Ngoc Van was able to
become the master of Vietnamese oil painting because right from the very
beginning he strongly believed that this new medium could express well
the Vietnamese soul and would define the future of Vietnamese painting.
He started to employ the themes of women, daily life and landscape in
his paintings. Reality was always his primary source of inspiration. To
Ngoc Van paid a great deal of attention to shapes, but he was even more
concerned with colours. He introduced to Vietnamese painting powerful,
bold combinations of colours which differed from the soft blends of
colours his contemporaries often used. His indigo shines strikingly
impressive; his red, yellow and orange glitter brightly and move gently;
and his purple and pink glisten with freshness. Layers of oil paint
intertwine and merge to create the mixed impression of ambiguity and
concreteness, hardness and softness. With To Ngoc Van, Vietnamese oil
painting could be said to have joined the mainstream of the world's
modem arts.
The master of lacquer
painting
Born in 1892 in Thach Ha
District, Ha Tinh Province and died in 1984 in Ha Noi
Graduate of the 1925-1930 class of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts
de l’Indochine
Awarded with the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 1996
Main works: Game of Squares (silk), Meal (silk), Giong to the Field and
the Wandering Singer.
Nguyen Phan Chanh is
considered the founder of Vietnamese silk painting. He was also the
first Vietnamese modem painter to be known outside Vietnam. During the
late 1920s and early 1930s, Nguyen Phan Chanh patiently studied the
techniques of silk painting. As a result he was able to create
masterpieces such as The Meal, The Wandering Singer, Going to the Field,
and Feeding the Bird. His Game.of Squares was unexpectedly given special
attention at a 1931 exhibition in Paris. This painting uses strong
patches of colour often found in Vietnamese folkloric wood prints and a
coherent composition typical of Western painting. The technique displays
a perfect combination of Oriental and Western painting approaches.
The painter and art
researcher
Born in 1912 in Tu Liem
District, Ha Noi and died in 1977.
Graduate of the 1929-1934 class of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts
de l’Indochine.
Awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 1996.
Main works: The Gate of the Village (gouache, 1940), The Gate of Hue
Citadel (gouache, 1941), The Guerillas of La Hai (gouache, 1947), and
The Engineering Workers (gouache, 1962).
Nguyen Do Cung was
probably the only artist of the first generation who specialized in both
painting and research..jpg)
In painting, he was the
first Vietnamese to explore the Cubism and was particularly succesful in
two paintings with this approach: The Gate of the Village (1940) and The
Gate of Hue Citadel (1941). During the French war (1946-1954), he went
to Central Viet Nam where he focused on patriotic themes. His paintings
during this period include The Guerrillas Practicing Shooting, An
Arms-Making Factory, and The An Khe Battle. During the 1960s and 1970s
he mostly did studies of workers including Exchanging Experiences (1960)
and The Engineering Workers (1962).
His greatest contribution
to Vietnamese fine art, however, was his research on the ancient art in
communal houses and pagodas. The marks of his work can still be seen in
the carvings of the beams, the roofs and the balustrades at the Viet Nam
Museum of Fine Art, which he himself designed.
The blending of folklore
with modernity
Born in 1922 in Nam Dan
District, Nghe An Province.
Graduate a the 1941-1946 class of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de
l’Indochine.
Awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 1996
Main works: The Guardian of the Temple of Literature (oil, 1944), New
Year's Eve on the Bank of Restored Sword Lake (lacquer 1957), An Ancient
Dance (gouache, 1983), and Genie Giong (lacquer 1976).
Nguyen Tu Nghiem is
considered the pioneer artist in combining folkloric tradition with the
modem spirit, creating a uniquely Vietnamese style.
Even when he was still a
student, his teachers and peers used to admire him for his creativity,
especially in his lively oil paintings on rural themes such as Grazing
the Buffaloes in the Rain, The Cow at the Gate of the Pagoda and The
Guardian of the Temple of literature.
Together with painter
Nguyen Do Cung, he visited many temples and pagodas familiarizing
himself with each statue and carving. These trips provided him with the
material and inspiration for the development of his artistic language.
Nguyen Tu Nghiem was
never satisfied with himself, trying to exhaust every single theme he
embarked on with as many paintings as he could. Accordingly, he would
pursue the same theme for many years. On the theme of ancient dancing,
it took him twenty-seven years of pondering between An Ancient Dance
(1956) and An Ancient Dance (1983). Moreover he managed to take
Vietnamese modem painting back to the roots of the national identity
with a series of folkloric pictures including The Mid- Autumn Festival
(I 963), The Lion Dance (1962) and Genie Giong (1976). In no other
painters can the blend of traditional culture and modernity be better
felt than in Nguyen Tu Nghiem,
Born in 1923 in Tien
Giang Province and died in 1988 in Ho Chi Minh City.
Graduate of the 1940-1945 class of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts
de l’Indochine.
Awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 1996.
Main works: The Enemy Have Burnt Our Village (oil, 1954), Admission to
the Party in the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield (lacquer, 1963), Landscape of
the Middle Region (water colour), and A Girl by Lotus (oil, 1972)..jpg)
Nguyen Sang devoted
himself mostly to the theme of the patriotic wars for national
independence and reunification. Out of simple compositions and solid
shapes he created melodramatic spaces in his paintings. Some of the
works on the theme of war include The Enemy Have Burnt Our Village (oil,
1954), The Soldiers Sheltering from the Rain (1960), and The Soldiers
Resting on the Hill (1960). Nguyen Sang also possessed a lyrical side as
evidenced in his A Girl by Lotus, A Girl in the Banana Garden, Portrait
of a Girl, and The Thap Pagoda. Firmly grounded in the national artistic
tradition, Nguyen Sang absorbed the quintessence of the world's art and
helped to modernize Vietnamese art.
The painter of Hanoi’s
ancient streets
Born in 1920 Ha Noi and
died in 1988
Graduate of the 1941-1946 class of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts
de L’Indochine
Awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for the Literature and Arts in 1996
Main works: Old Street (oil), The Da River (oil, 1980), O Quan Chuong (goauche,
1983), and Before the Performance (oil, 1983).
Bui Xuan Phai's life has
been so closely associated with Hanoi that the city's old banyan trees,
moss-covered walls, dark red tiled roofs and ancient streets have become
the heart and soul of his paintings. So far no other painters have been
able to match Phai's talent for revealing the charm of Hanoi's old
quarter with his large, dark and nostalgic strokes of the brush; though
more recently the outlines of his objects have become thinner and his
palette more cheerful as can be found in his 0 Quan Chuong (1983) and
Ngo Si Lien Market (1984). Bui Xuan Phai also painted pictures of actors
and actresses of the traditional cheo theatre, and the cows, haystacks
and graceful country girls of the peaceful countryside. Vietnamese modem
painting would be incomplete without Bui Xuan Phai. His influence on
later generations of painters can still be felt today.
From: Viet Nam Culturall
Window, No 29 - August 2000
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