From Dông Son sculpture to Chinese influence
Vietnamese art is one of the most controversial and little-known of the Far Eastern arts, with the exception of the period of the bronze civilization, or Dông Son, uncovered and studied between 1920 and 1960 in the Hanoi region by the École française d'Extrême-Orient. This civilization, known as Bronze Art, dates from -1000 BC, for the earliest remains, until the first Chinese incursions in the 2nd century BC. In its golden age, it probably stretched from the Tonkin region to Indonesia, but its cultural unity is now in doubt. These peoples created a variety of bronze works, most of them ritual, many of them decorated with human and animal figures, and cast using the lost-wax technique. The most common objects are drums, bells, ceremonial axes and sculptures, sometimes anthropomorphic. They are highly elaborate and of great finesse. Certain relief motifs, such as the spiral, remained present in the arts of the region even after the extinction of this civilization. Viet Nam then came under Chinese influence, with easily identifiable analogies in architectural styles, ornamentation and writing. This influence prevailed until the end of the 18th century, despite a few attempts at independence between the 16th and 17th centuries.
Lacquer, an ancestral technique
This technique has been around for over two thousand years. Lacquer is a plant-based material derived from the milky juice of the lacquer tree(cây son), a liquid stored for two to three months in waterproof bamboo baskets. The deposit is then mixed with resin, turpentine and colorants to obtain a colored lacquer. This material is highly resistant to insects, salt water and heat. It can be applied to a multitude of surfaces: wood, leather, paper, canvas, wickerwork, etc. It was a certain Trân Lu, patron saint of the lacquerers' guild, who, in the early 16th century, brought back gilding and silverware techniques from an embassy mission in China. The art of sanded lacquer was born around 1932, inspired by a group of painters from the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine. After the drawing has been composed, it is covered with an opaque varnish(canh gian) which is then sanded, revealing images and colors in effects that are never fully mastered.
The print, pillar of Vietnamese culture
Until the introduction of Western printing techniques in the 19th century, the Vietnamese relied on xylography, using woodblocks engraved in relief to print religious texts, court documents and popular images. The latter were produced in particular in the village of Dông Hô (Bac Ninh province) and on rue Hang Trông (rue des Tambours), in Hanoi. The two manufacturing techniques correspond to two different styles.
In Dông Hô, prints are applied to an engraved plank of wood. They depict traditional scenes: country life, traditional games, scenes of jovial or courtly love, scenes of jealousy... Zo paper (of vegetable origin) is used, coated with mother-of-pearl (diep). It is then colored by successive applications of layers corresponding to the different colors and engraved on as many wooden boards. In Hang Trông, on the other hand, the design is printed on industrial paper and colored with a brush. Hang Trông's prints mainly depict cult images (white tigers, saints) and betray a more marked Chinese influence. These prints are mainly produced during the 11th and 12th lunar months, to be sold during Têt, the Vietnamese New Year, when they adorn homes. These prints, always made in the traditional way, are the result of remarkable craftsmanship. You can buy them in the boutiques of Hanoi's old streets.
Painting and modern art, at the heart of colonial history
The tradition of figurative art has always been very much alive in Vietnam, as evidenced by the many popular prints. With colonization, Vietnamese art in the 19th century was considerably influenced by the French artistic style, which flourished mainly in large cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In the early 20th century, numerous French art institutions were established in Vietnam, such as the École des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine, inaugurated in Hanoi in 1925 as a branch of the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. From then on, modern Vietnamese artists began to combine French techniques with traditional materials such as silk, lacquer and porcelain, and to hybridize pictorial codes, creating a unique blend of Eastern and Western elements. Modern Vietnamese art was thus born, illustrated by great painters such as Nguyên Sang, Nguyên Gia Tri, To Ngoc Van and Bui Xuân Phai.
Bui Xuân Phai (1920-1988), "the painter of the soul of Hanoi
Bui Xuân Phai was born in 1920 in the village of Kim Hoang, renowned for its woodcutting tradition. He graduated in 1945 from one of the last graduating classes of the Hanoi School of Fine Arts and helped shape the evolution of modern Vietnamese art, becoming one of Southeast Asia's most celebrated 20th-century painters. After the August Revolution (1945), Bui Xuan Phai took part in artistic activities in the service of the Revolution. Returning to Hanoi in 1952, he worked in his studio on his favorite themes: Hanoi streets, family portraits and still lifes, in contrast to his militant style. He teaches at the École des Beaux-Arts and provides illustrations for newspapers. In 1957, he became involved in an attempt to liberalize the arts and letters, which clashed with the Party's notion of art at the service of the people. The movement was crushingly suppressed by the authorities: Bui Xuân Phai escaped the labor camp, but lost his teaching post. From 1960 to 1988, Bui Xuân Phai, physically weakened by the deprivations he endured in the maquis and with no financial income, led a difficult life, but one characterized by unfailing fidelity to his vocation as an artist. Bui Xuân Phai's fame was largely posthumous. His best-known canvases, depicting the streets of Hanoi bathed in a sense of solitude and melancholy, are highly prized on the art market.
Photography, an art that is gradually being liberalized
Photography was introduced to Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century by European and Hong Kong photographers. Early photographers used the medium to document historic sites, portray colonial administrators and the Vietnamese aristocracy, and capture everyday life in the big cities. The success of this technology lies mainly in its potential for disseminating information about Cochinchina, Tonkin and Annam by colonial administrators, but also in the importance of family portraits in Vietnamese tradition, particularly in the context of Confucian practices of ancestor worship. With the Indochina War and the Vietnam War (1946-1954 then 1955-1975), studio photography practices declined in favor of photojournalism or documentary photography, which served primarily to document and transmit the news of the time to an international audience.
Since 1986, with the liberalization of Vietnamese economic policies, there has been a diversification of funding sources and greater artistic freedom for photographers. In documentary photography, censorship is still a hindrance, particularly for those whose work might reveal the underbelly of Vietnamese society. On the artistic side, several generations of talented photographers have emerged, such as Bùi Xuân Huy (b. 1953), one of the first Vietnamese photographers sent abroad to study photography. His photos of the streets of Ho Chi Minh City are imbued with ambivalence and bewilderment, and are a metaphor for the changes affecting his city and country.
A contemporary scene that is gradually asserting itself
After the end of French domination, Vietnam was faced with growing tensions between religions and political groups, characterized by a period of low creative activity. American intervention from the 1950s to the early 1970s completely disrupted the country, preventing any form of artistic expression. A true cultural renaissance came only after reunification in 1976, in the 1990s. The works of artists who took part in the struggle for independence have acquired great value, describing the history of the country and its uprisings, and undertaking a necessary work of remembrance. Nevertheless, freedom of expression remained limited, and any stance that ran counter to the regime's ideas was suppressed.
While artists continued to incorporate Western influences into their work, they integrated them critically and continued to place them alongside traditional techniques and approaches. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, cities such as Hô Chi Minh and the capital Hanoi asserted themselves on the art market, while international collectors, gallery owners and museums showed a growing interest in Vietnamese art, and the number of exhibitions dedicated to it continued to rise. In Vietnam itself, a number of art centers, galleries and museums have sprung up in recent years, supporting local creation. Examples include the Factory Contemporary Arts Center and Galerie Quynh in Hô Chi Minh, and the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art in Hanoi. TheFrench Institute in Hanoi is also very active in the field of contemporary creation, with a focus on intercultural exchanges. These recent developments augur well for the future of Vietnamese art.
Street Art, an increasingly popular practice
While tourists are fond of street art, the government and local populations are not always. But with the enthusiasm of young urban escape seekers, who have been practising it for only a few years, tolerance is gradually developing, and we're beginning to see more and more frescoes blooming in the streets of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh. Nevertheless, this street art remains controlled by the State and subject to censorship - in most cases, therefore, the frescoes are clean and neat, rarely critical, but rather conveying positive messages.
Institutions have sprung up to support the movement, such as the Giant Step Urban Art Gallery, a platform for conversation and collaboration for local street artists, featuring both original works and photographic archives. To name just one, one of the places not to be missed for its originality is the Ao Dài alleyway in the Duc Thang district, whose walls are covered with touching paintings on the themes of environmental protection, family happiness, the feelings linking mother and child, or family planning. Their author is Cao Tri Thinh, a man who stands out on the local scene at almost 100 years of age!
