FROM CRAFT TO ART

VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTINGS

Including Works from the Collection of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum
FROM CRAFT TO ART VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTINGS 1

Shireen Naziree

2 FROM CRAFT TO ART VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTINGS

FROM CRAFT TO ART

Shireen Naziree

VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTINGS

Including Works from the Collection of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum

FROM CRAFT TO ART VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTINGS 3

Published 2013 by Thavibu Gallery Co., Ltd Silom Galleria, Suite 433 919/1 Silom Road, Bangkok 10500, Thailand Tel. 66 (0)2 266 5454, Fax. 66 (0)2 266 5455 Email. info@thavibu.com, www.thavibu.com ISBN 978-616-91815-0-7 Layout by Wanee Tipchindachaikul, Copydesk, Thailand Copyright Thavibu Gallery All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher

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FOREWORD
Jrn Middelborg Thavibu Gallery

This book gives an introduction to lacquer painting as a form of ne art. Although the lacquer technique is centuries old in Asia, it is only in Vietnam that it has been developed as a technique in modern and contemporary lacquer painting and thus makes an important contribution to the global art scene. The rst part of the book showcases modern lacquer paintings that were collected by the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese artists were encouraged by their French art teachers at the cole des Beaux-Arts in Hanoi to experiment with traditional media such as silk and lacquer to produce modern paintings, paving the way for a fresh generation of artists to try out new ways of expression. The second part of the book provides an introduction to contemporary lacquer painting and to works by some of the most important artists. These works deal with themes that are frequently raised in contemporary society: social issues, political commentary, abstractions, love and emotions. Vietnamese artists of today address similar issues that aect artists elsewhere, although they have a unique medium in which to express themselves lacquer paintings. While not purporting to be an exhaustive academic treatise, this book encourages an appreciation of the visual impact of lacquer paintings, especially masterpieces from the collection of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum. Also, the book gives an insight into how lacquer paintings are produced. I would like to extend my thanks to Shireen Naziree for writing the text, to Dr Truong Quoc Binh, Director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum for supplying the images of paintings in the Museums collection, to Trinh Tuan for his article about the lacquer process, to Pham Long and Trinh Tuan for help with locating information and people, to Tran Thanh Ha, Bui Quoc Chi, Tira Vanichtheeranont and the Singapore Art Museum for providing images, and to Ralph Kiggell for checking the language.

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CONTENTS
Foreword Vietnamese Lacquer Painting: From Craft to Art 5 Huyuh Van Gam (19221987) 7 Mai Van Nam (19211988) 32 33 34 35

Lacquer Paintings in the Collection of the Vietnam Phung Pham (b. 1934) Fine Arts Museum, Hanoi Nguyen Gia Tri (19081993) Pham Hau (19031995) Nguyen Van Ty (19171992) Nguyen Tien Chung (19141976) To Ngoc Van (19061954) Phan Ke An (b. 1923) Nguyen Tu Nghiem (b. 1922) Nguyen Duc Nung (19141983) Hoang Tich Chu (19122003) Tran Van Can (19101994) Nguyen Sang (19231988) Pham Duc Cuong (19161990) Tran Dinh Tho (19192011) Nguyen The Vinh (19261997)

14 The Process of Making Vietnamese Lacquer Paintings 19 by Trinh Tuan 36

20 A New Nationalism: Contemporary Lacquer Painting 39 21 Contemporary Artists Working In Lacquer 22 Dinh Quan (b. 1964) 23 Trinh Tuan (b. 1961) 24 Truong Tan (b. 1963) 25 Cong Kim Hoa (b. 1962) 26 Le Quang Ha (b. 1963) 27 Nguyen Thanh Chuong (b. 1949) 28 Bui Huu Hung (b. 1957) 30 Vu Thang (b. 1970) 31 Index 42 42 44 46 48 49 50 51 52 53

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VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTING: FROM CRAFT TO ART

How do artists with a modern academic background align themselves with the proponents of an art practice whose ethos is embedded in the age-old tradition of their community? The former represent a modern age of individualism, while the latter adhere to a collective community endeavour for aesthetic fullment, strictly guided by history and convention. Modern education may profess these dierences, but it is the fusion of these two seemingly irreconcilable worlds that denes the history of contemporary Vietnamese lacquer painting. Almost a century ago in 1925, the cole Superieure des Beaux-Arts dIndochine (Fine Arts College of Indochina) was established in Hanoi through the eorts of Victor Tardieu (18701937) and Nguyen Van Tho (18901973) better known as Nam Son. Tardieu, who had graduated from the cole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and later studied in Paris under Gustave Moreau with Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault, embarked for Indochina in 1921 having been commissioned by the French colonial administration to paint two large-scale murals for the University of Indochine and the Central Library, both located in Hanoi. While there he met Nam Son, an employee of the colonial administration, who was an accomplished painter practising Chinese ink painting and who had an ardent interest in art education. Together they formulated the infrastructure and the establishment of the art academy. In 1924, as part of the long-term plan for the academy, Nam Son was sent to Paris for a year to qualify for his new post as an art instructor. Modelled on the European academy, many aspects of the cole system were replicated in the establishment of the Fine Arts College in Hanoi. This academy, alongside the eorts of Victor Tardieu, would be pivotal to the development of lacquer painting as a ne art form and a new national art as it transformed into high art. By all accounts, Victor Tardieus fascination with the beauty of the land and with the aesthetics and skills of the local craftsmen compelled him to lobby the French administration for the establishment of an art academy to train an elite colonial corp of artists.

Nguyen Gia Tri | Girls By Cotton-Rose Hibiscus Flowers , 1944 | 176 x 130 cm (4 panels) Courtesy of Duc Minh Collection

Nguyen Gia Tri | Iron pen on paper | 66 x 42 cm | Courtesy of Tira Vanichtheeranont This piece may be a working sketch for the lacquer painting above

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Though the rst art academy had been established in Saigon in 1913, the establishment of an art academy in Hanoi anchored the presence of the French administration culturally as well as economically. Besides nurturing artists, the art academy was also set to provide exotic paintings for the French bourgeoisie as well as to serve the interests of metropolitan France in Indochina.1 Despite the optimism surrounding Tardieus eorts, the French showed considerable reserve in regard to the talents of the Vietnamese. It was, however, Tardieus genuine passion for Vietnam, his appreciation of the traditional arts and his camaraderie with local artists together with his ability to maintain a consistent dialogue with the French administration that the Fine Arts College was able to thrive. The academy provided a place where talent could be nurtured, and it was here that lacquer craft was transformed into a new art form. While colonial values exploited the Vietnamese, Tardieu conveyed his genuine concern for the people and culture and armed that the Amnamese had all the gifts to become artists and they had this right. 2 In 1925, Victor Tardieu was joined by Joseph Inguimberty (18961971) and together they encouraged the study and appreciation of indigenous art forms and architecture while teaching modern European painting practices. By expanding traditional painting practice to adapt European academic art principles, artists created modern perceptions of the visual world and the result of this aesthetic shift in arts and crafts would ultimately elevate their status. The establishment of the art college initiated a new profession in Vietnamese culture denoted by the word Hia Si, meaning painter, to describe a creator of artistic painting as opposed to Thq Ve, meaning a person who draws or paints as a craft. Artists would sign their artworks in recognition of their individual creativity with the implication that they were no longer under the control of a collective. Historical dating of lacquer objects found in a number of ancient tombs located near Hai Phong suggests that lacquer painting on objects such as boat oars, household ware as well as lacquer-producing equipment had existed in Vietnam for more than 2000 years. Such archaeological nds place Vietnamese lacquer in a timeframe parallel to Chinas Han Dynasty. Historical records from Vietnams later Le Dynasty (Le Mat, 14431460) relate that the craft was brought back to Vietnam by the envoy Tran Tuong Cong who had studied the technique in Hunan in China. Consequently lacquer craft was passed down through the generations from father to son within guilds where techniques were often kept secret in each family and district. Though the inuence of European art practices, in particular the Impressionist movement, on aspiring pain ters at the academy cannot be underestimated, Tardieu actively encouraged the use of traditional materials such as silk, do paper and of course lacquer. However, it was Joseph Inguimberty who actively initiated a painting movement that introduced lacquer as an alternative to oils and other paint pigments a position he assumed from the time he joined the college in 1925. Inguimbertys interest in the medium extended further than its aesthetic qualities. He collaborated with artisans and invited master craftsmen to oer their expertise to students at the Lacquer Research workshop. Students were encouraged to experiment with applications and materials, which were often time-consuming and tedious but resulted in the detailing that would become intrinsic to Vietnamese lacquer painting.
1 2 Nora A Taylor (2004) Painters in Hanoi - An Ethnography of Vietnamese Art. University of Hawaii Press. USA Boi Tran Huynh (2005) Vietnamese Aesthetics from 1925 Onwards - The University of Sydney.

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In 1934 the college formally inaugurated a workshop for researching the qualities and application of lacquer and cemented the foundation for the development of lacquer painting. When the Fine Arts College of Indochina was reorganised and renamed as the Indochina Fine Arts and Applied Arts College in 1938, it comprised two main schools: that of architecture and the other of painting, sculpture and lacquer. Lacquer painting, once a secondary subject, was then made compulsory with the same emphasis as painting and sculpture. The departure of lacquer painting from its traditional status to that of a modern medium was an important turning point in the modern art history of Vietnam. The era signalled the start of an artistic tradition that was truly imbued with the essence of Vietnams cultural heritage and allowed artists to express themselves within a unique national character and with individual artistic voices.
Nguyen Gia Tri | Landscape of Vietnam, 1940 Lacquer and mixed media on board 119 x 159 cm Singapore Art Museum Collection Photo copyright of artwork belongs to the Singapore Art Museum

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Amongst the earliest students to study lacquer painting at the college were Le Pho, Pham Hau and Nguyen Gia Tri. Le Pho moved to Paris in 1937 and ceased painting in lacquer. Nguyen ia Tri initially entered the academy in 1928 and, despite an interruption to his studies, re-entered the academy in 1931 and graduated in 1936. His experimentations with techniques and materials were not only pioneering, but led him to create amongst the most important works in the early 1940s. It must be acknowledged that at the time there were numerous other artists whose experimentations also pioneered new techniques. Tran Van Can was another lacquer painter who challenged traditional methods of practice and whose experimentations paved the way for painters to work with newer colours other than traditional tones and techniques. Such developments imbued Vietnamese painters with a new realisation that liberated lacquer from its ageold traditions into a dynamic medium that enabled artists to expand their abilities and express their emotions with the most subtle of colours. From the traditional black, gold, red, silver and puce were added new materials such as eggshell, mother of pearl as well as other elements such as vegetative dyes, metallic salts and oils. The creative use of new materials combined with traditional elements as well as innovative painting styles together with layering and rubbing techniques allowed artists to render traditional subjects such as the landscape in painting styles normally seen only on canvas or board. The cultural climate of the early 20th century existed alongside a socio-political environment that was vexed by the prominence of French rule in all levels of Vietnamese society. For students of the college this meant that, although the French curriculum contrasted with the essence of Vietnamese expressionism that evoked the spiritual, they could easily absorb the French tutorial of replication. These diverse cultural alignments enabled the Vietnamese an alternate way of seeing. Although they were exposed to the entire spectrum of European art from the Renaissance to French Impressionism, Vietnamese artists comfortably moved into Modernism, embellishing it as they did so with a very distinct identity.

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Nguyen Gia Tri | Three Ladies, 1968 | 40 x 80 cm Collection of Jrn Middelborg

Nguyen Gia Tri | Golden Rice Fields, 1968 |40 x 80 cm Collection of Jrn Middelborg

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When Ho Chi Minh founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on the 2nd of September 1945, the development of the arts was overlapped by his political eorts to seek an independent socio-political order for Vietnam. His return to North Vietnam in 1941, after a 30-year exile in China, and his newly formed League for the Independence of Vietnam or Viet Minh yielded passionate patriotism amongst many artists and intellectuals. Within these cultural alignments existed a patriotism in which political ideals would develop. The onset of Ho Chi Minhs ideologies was a dening watershed and, while not apparent at the time, it was when an art movement began that would alter the course of Vietnams art history. By the time the art college closed in 1945 as a result of the war against the French, Vietnamese lacquer painting had matured materially as well as spiritually alongside other artistic practices. Though Communism was essentially a foreign theory at the time to the Vietnamese, Ho Chi Minh understood that his ght for independence would become one between Communism and Imperialism. The socialist order that resulted was shaped from Vietnams international agenda with the Communist Bloc, in particular with China and the Soviet Union. As Vietnam enveloped their socialist inuences, French inuences started to wane. Simultaneously individualism in art was seen as decadent and reminiscent of colonialism, while socialist realism was instead applied to every aspect of everyday life. The dominance of Communism in intellectual life meant that socialist ideologies would shape the trajectory of the visual arts for the following 30 years. While numerous cultural practitioners identied themselves with the Viet Minh, a number deviated from the socialist mainstream and many moved to the South where they produced artworks that would counterbalance the ocial viewpoint. As Western modernism was denounced, artists were called upon to assist in building a new democratic culture, which advocated socialist realism as a method of artistic creation that evolved around truth in society with the emphasis of content over form. With such strong political imperatives, there was a strong shift in aesthetics. The public display of nude paintings was banned as was that of abstract art, with its roots in Western modernism. Painters lled their lacquer works with what they lived with everyday as they confronted the true physicality of the painfully honest lives of the peasants and the countryside they encountered on their long marches as soldiers. Interpretations of folk art on lacquer also represented the partnership between artists and the Viet Minh, shaped by the exciting atmosphere of the era. Amongst the artists who actively adopted this new revolutionary stance were To Ngoc Van and Nguyen Tu Nghiem. Due to the scarcity of materials and the diculties of wartime, the number of lacquer paintings created during the Viet Minhs nine-year war against the French and later with the Americans were fewer. From an historical perspective, the contribution of these artists to the art of lacquer painting represents an incredible revolution. Revolutionary as they may have appeared, the early generation of lacquer painters might have left the path set out by their French colonial teachers, had they never ceased to explore the broader palette reected in many of the works of the era.

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Nguyen Tu Nghiem | Saint Giong, 1990 | 120 x 90 cm Collection of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum Nguyen Tu Nghiem claims to have made hundreds of sketches based on Saint Giong between 1980 and 1990 that nally led him to render it in lacquer.

The years between 1945 and 1975 witnessed the anguished and transforming experiences of Ho Chi Minhs wars, rst with the French and later with the Americans. These experiences and the politically and socially altering aftermath in North Vietnam, as well as the surrender of South Vietnam to the communist North and their ultimate reunication into The Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976 would ultimately create a broader, sophisticated community of artists. The integration of North and South also led to changing political and social realities and the evolution of a more broadly envisioned national identity. The codication of identity and Vietnams visual art would later evolve again, moving toward a dierent kind of idealism. However the admiration and respect for the old master lacquer painters stemmed in part from a kinship between generations that is best characterized through creativity, inventiveness and tolerance qualities fundamental to lacquer painting.
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LACQUER PAINTINGS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE VIETNAM FINE ARTS MUSEUM, HANOI Nguyen Gia Tri (19081993)

Nguyen Gia Tri | Landscape, 1939 | 400 x 160 cm | Front image of the painting, 8 panels

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Nguyen Gia Tri | Young Girls in the Garden, 1939 | 400 x 160 cm | Back image of the painting, 8 panels

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Nguyen Gia Tri was born in Ha Dong, Ha Tay Province, North Vietnam, and has been celebrated as Vietnams most important and nest lacquer painter of the 20th century. Though he entered the Fine Arts College of Indochina in 1928, his studies were interrupted and he only resumed them with the seventh intake upon the invitation of Victor Tardieu, the principal of the college. Over his lifetime, Nguyen Gia Tri was prolic, creating lacquer paintings that revealed his unique artistic style. Through his art, Nguyen Gia Tri displayed an individuality that espoused a contemporary ideology developed early in his career. In shaping an artistic philosophy that included both Western and Eastern artistic principles, he stood apart from his peers. Though he never abandoned the principles of traditional lacquer painting, Nguyen Gia Tris approach to the art of lacquer painting was modern, meticulous and precise. An artist whose work remains alive and sensitive, he reduced the details of nature to large, at, rhythmic and grand shapes that were further enhanced by the smooth surface of lacquer. From his studio in Hanoi, he was known to hire the most skilled assistants and he never compromised on materials. His lavish use of gold leaf and the exacting use of pigments resulted in a glowing palette that echoed with energy. Working primarily with traditional pigments he created elaborate large-scale works such as the double-sided eight-panelled screen titled Landscape/Young Girls in the Garden (1939). In Landscape the background is dense with detailed brushwork while he has reduced the leaves in the foreground to modelled forms and layered these forms in distinct, overlapping planes and scales that recede to the background. In contrast, the compositional element of light in Young Girls in the Garden bathes his subjects richly in form and colour to provide movement. Everything coordinates as he separates each gure from the background, expressively depicting each girls character, whether they are standing, sitting or picking owers. From a similar vantage point, the articulate brushstrokes in Three Ladies, 1968 (p. 11) are models of the extremes of richness as well as simplicity that he was able to apply in a single artwork. His interpretation of his subjects was never literal but rather a portrayal of their essence. The patterned shapes of nature, light and shadows in Golden Rice Fields, 1968 (p. 11) represent the harmony of the majestic and serene Vietnamese landscape that gave him palpable joy in the paintings that he created. Nguyen Gia Tris works are a singular contribution to the history of lacquer painting and an armative coda to his life as one of the most inuential and important artists in Vietnams art history.

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Pham Hau (19031995)

Pham Hau | Summer Wind, 1940 | 150 x 68 cm

Between 1939 and 1944 a number of important exhibitions highlighting lacquer painting were hosted in Hanoi as well as in Europe. Pham Hau exhibited in several important exhibitions including one alongside Nguyen Gia Tri in Hanoi in 1944. One of his masterpieces is Summer Wind, rendered in traditional tones of reds, puce, black, gold and eggshell and featuring the lotus ower. Revered for its beauty and purity, the ower also represents long life. In Vietnamese culture it holds added importance because it is classied as one of the four chi (seasons). It is the symbol of summer because it blossoms in that season and perfumes the air with its fragrance.

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Nguyen Van Ty (19171992)

Nguyen Van Ty is said to have broken the old rule of black and red by introducing blue into his paintings. In Young Girls and the Sea he adopted very free brushstrokes and made full use of eggshell, which was regarded as neutral white. In this painting, he describes four young girls three in long and owing ao dai dresses and one nude through very bold black lines while most of the painting is embellished with eggshell. Because the use of eggshell was very much undeve loped at the time, it is undestood that this was the last painting using eggshell that Nguyen Van Ty executed.

Nguyen Van Ty | Young Girls and the Sea, 1940 | 96 x 94 cm

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Nguyen Tien Chung (19141976)

The social climate of an era is best reected in its art. Painted in 1943 before the start of the Revolution, Two Young Girls reects the romanticism implied through an Impressionist style of painting. Nguyen Tien Chung, another of the pioneer master lacquer painters, stu died at the Fine Arts College in the ninth intake in 1936 and graduated in 1941.

Nguyen Tien Chung | Two Young Girls, 1943 | 93 x 100 cm

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To Ngoc Van (19061954)

To Ngoc Van is regarded as amongst the most important pioneer lacquer painters. Together with Nguyen Tu Nghiem, he experimented with pigments and has been credited for mainly discovering the green used in painting. After his graduation in 1931, a year of economic crisis, he taught painting as well as worked as an illustrator. In 1935 he was assigned as a teacher at the Sisovath Secondary School in Phnom Penh and returned to Hanoi in 1939 to take up a position at the Fine Arts College. In 1945, after the start of the Revolution, To Ngoc Van was assigned to reopen the Fine Arts College, which had to close once again due to the war against the French. In 1947 he left Hanoi to join the liberation movement, managing the Resistance Culture Group and eventually becoming the rst principal of the Viet Bac Resistance Fine Arts College. He was highly regarded for his exibility in rendering his subjects in lacquer and his ability to play with light and shadow. Living amongst combatants and industrious farmers during the resistance left deep imprints on his perceptions of the true reality of the Vietnamese people. Soldiers and Porters Resting on a Hill reects his understanding of the dicult lives of ordinary Vietnamese that he expressed through much muted tones rather than the vibrant colours of his earlier works. It is said that To Van Ngoc was so entranced by lacquer painting that he even dreamed of creating a lacquer city.

To Ngoc Van | Soldiers and Porters Resting on a Hill, 1953 | 45 x 35 cm

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Phan Ke An (b. 1923)

Phan Ke An | Reminiscences of a Late Afternoon in Tay Bac, 1955 | 112 x 70 cm

It has been documented that the ten years after peace was regained in 1954 were amongst the most prolic for the creation of lacquer paintings. Included amongst the most notable works from the collection of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum of this era is Reminiscences of a Late Afternoon in Tay Bac by Phan Ke An.

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Nguyen Tu Nghiem (b. 1922)

Nguyen Tu Nghiem | Young Buffalo, 1957 | 63 x 45 cm

Tu Nghiem studied and created lacquer paintings together at Xuan Ang village where To Ngoc Van had established a workshop to engrave and print propaganda. It was here, that he and To Ngoc Van discovered green pigment, which according to Nguyen Tu Nghiem was not a real discovery but instead the answer to wartime needs. He also claims to have seriously adopted the medium during wartime. After the war, he set out to paint the animals of the Zodiac in a realistic style and, as conscious as he was about earning an income from his paintings, he was equally sensitive about people appreciating Vietnamese culture. Of Young Bualo he commented that it was not his favourite painting but rather a reection on life itself.

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Nguyen Duc Nung (1914 - 1983)

Nguyen Duc Nung | Dawn at the Farm, 1958 | 91 x 63 cm

The focus on new and popular topics after 1954 attested to the social and realistic changes that were being reected in art at that time. In 1958, following an exhibition in Moscow of artwork from Socialist countries, Vietnamese lacquer painting received high acclaim from the Russian media and specic comments were made about Nguyen Duc Nungs painting Dawn at the Farm as being a wonderful work.

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Hoang Tich Chu (19122003)

Hoang Tich Chu | Collaborative Efforts in the Highlands, 1958 | 100 x 76 cm

Hoang Tich Chu was another artist who was part of the resistance movement and continued to address his wartime experiences through his art. Collaborative Eorts in the Highlands refers to the farmers collectives that were typical in Socialist China and Vietnam.

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Tran Van Can (19101994)

Tran Van Can | Autumn, 195964 | 100 x 75 cm

Tran Van Can was one of the early students at the Fine Arts College of Indochina at a time when Joseph Inguimberty had initiated many experimental eorts at the Lacquer Research Workshop. Tran Van Can and fellow students experimented with various techniques that involved rubbed lacquer and unrubbed lacquer. Regarded as one of the pioneering Four Masters of Vietnamese modern art, alongside Nguyen Gia Tri, To Ngoc Van and Nguyen Tuong Lan, he was the recipient of numerous art awards throughout his lifetime. Though he mastered all the materials he worked with, his greatest contribution has been his lacquer paintings. Besides his achievements as an artist, he was highly regarded as an art academic. Autumn is an example of his diverse subject matter.

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Nguyen Sang (19231988)

Nguyen Sang | A Study, 1960 | 120 x 80 cm

Nguyen Sang is famous for his very individual approach to his art, rejecting inuences of Western art, which he saw as feudal and academic and setting traditional art and its modern interpretations as most representative of the Vietnamese cultural psyche. It is said that his years as part of the resistance movement inuenced his thinking and his art so potently that even after the war with the French ceased in 1954, he continued to live a very meagre and sparse existence. A Study not only reects Nguyen Sangs power with the paintbrush but also importantly attests to his relationship with the masses. A Study also reects the diculties people faced after 1954 when electricity was sparse and self-study movements emerged in many parts of North Vietnam.

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Nguyen Sang | Thap Pagoda, 1966 | 200 x 130 cm

Located 94 kilometres south of Hanoi near Nam Dinh City, the Pho Minh Pagoda was built during the Ly Dynasty. This area is also the home of the Tran kings, who resided in Trung Quang Palace near the Pho Minh Pagoda where they worshiped. The architecture of the pagoda is typical of the period. The Pho Minh Pagoda with its gourd-shaped decoration built in 1305, is in Vietnamese folklore believed to connect the Earth with the Universe.

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Pham Duc Cuong (19161990)

Pham Duc Cuong | Construction Site, 1961 | 87 x 57 cm

Pham Duc Cuong was one of the early lacquer painters who had researched and documented the history of lacquer. His landscape Construction Site from No 9 at Suoi Rut, Hoa Binh Province, relates to a time when collectives of young volunteers responded to the call by the Communist Party to rebuild houses, roads and factories throughout North Vietnam.

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Tranh Dinh Tho (19192011)

Tran Dinh Tho | Going to the Fields, 1961 | 87 x 57 cm

Tranh Dinh Tho was one of the earliest and most established lacquer painters who excelled in depictions of landscape. Going to the Fields demonstrates his rich renderings of the verdant and unspoilt Vietnamese countryside. Like many artists of his generation, he gained prominence after peace was declared in 1954.

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Huynh Van Gam (19221987)

While socialist realism generally preferred content over form, Little Lien reveals an indierence to such a tendency. Huynh Van Gam, another of the pioneer painters, proved that art could be nationalistic and Vietnamese with out adhering to any doctrine. Artists often painted portraits of subjects they personally knew, as in this painting.

Huynh Van Gam | Little Lien, 1962 | 45 x 66 cm

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Mai Van Nam (19211988)

Mai Van Nam | Resting in a Mountain Village, 1972 | 90 x 60 cm

Mai Van Nam, also a pioneer lacquer painter who had joined the resistance movement, is highly regarded for his scenes of country life. Resting in a Mountain Village alludes to the artists own experiences and, like many of his peers, he chose to address the humanity that he experienced during the war years as a continuing subject.

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Phung Pham (b. 1934)

Phung Pham | Fighting Drought, 1990 | 133 x 113 cm

Though artist Phung Pham endured the wars that ravaged Vietnam, he adopted a very dierent approach to his painting. While still adhering to the principles of lacquer painting, Fighting Drought displays a contemporary and stylistic approach, unlike the realist vocabulary of the generation of painters before him.

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Nguyen The Vinh (19261997)

Nguyen The Vinh | War Among Coconut Palms, 1990 | 80 x 60 cm

Like his peers, Nguyen The Vinh had joined the army and thus painted many scenes from his experiences. From War Among Coconut Palms it may be assumed that he painted this from a sketch that he made when he was serving in South Vietnam. Other lacquer artists with paintings in museum collections worldwide include: Do Thi Ninh (1993), Le Hong Thai (1994), Nguyen Thanh Le, Vu Thang (1995) and Truong Be (2002) in the Singapore Art Museums collection and Nguyen Khang (1958) and Nguyen Nhu Huan (1962) in the Fukuoka Asian Art Museums collection. The contemporary artists mentioned in a later chapter are also represented in museum collections.

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THE PROCESS OF MAKING VIETNAMESE LACQUER PAINTINGS

By Trinh Tuan The technique of using lacquer for handicrafts and decorative items in the household has a long tradition in Vietnam since it was introduced from China centuries ago. The French introduced Western paintings and tech niques into the country, in particular after the establishment of the Fine Arts University, cole des Beaux-Arts Superieure dIndochine, in Hanoi in 1925. The traditional lacquer technique, which had earlier been used for handicrafts and decorative household items, was now applied to paintings, creating a new art form. The rst lacquer paintings were quite traditional in expressing scenes of natural beauty. Later, lacquer paintings promoted Socialist and Communist values. However, since Vietnam became more outward looking in the 1980s and 1990s, young artists have explored and reinvented the old art form, placing it in a new, contemporary context to create highly innovative and interesting paintings. Each artist has dierent ways of using lacquer to produce paintings, and some details are known only to the artists themselves. However, there are some features common to all lacquer paintings.

The Board
The artists buy the boards ready-made from suppliers. They come in a variety of sizes. The core of the board is made from plywood. One layer of lacquer is applied to the plywood, which is left to dry. Next, thin cotton cloths soaked in clay are attached to both sides of the plywood. After the cotton/clay mixture dries, the board will be smoothed and polished. This process is performed ve times. Layers of black lacquer are then applied, and the board is left to dry before being polished. Thus the nal product appears as a piece of black board, very smooth and durable. It consists of several layers, is very resistant, and will not crack due to uctuations in temperature or humidity. It may warp slightly due to these changes, but it is quite easy to straighten it again, as it remains exible.

The Lacquer and Colours

Lacquer is a clear sap coming from any of six species of trees growing in Vietnam, the main ones being Rhus (or Toxicodendron) succedanea in the north and Melanorrhoea (or Gluta) laccifera in the south, both belonging to the family Anacardiaceae. Rhus succedanea has been known for a long time as the son (lacquer) tree, an indigenous name. Lacquer is harvested in the same way as rubber, by making an incision and letting the sap ow. Fresh lacquer is whitish, and turns brown upon exposure to air. Lacquer growers can only obtain it between midnight and dawn. The sap thus collected is contained in large bamboo barrels covered tightly by sticking wax paper on their surfaces to make them air-proof. The containers of lacquer are afterwards taken away and left untouched for several months in a cool, dark, well-aired place until the dierent elements of lacquer settle into three major layers. Only then does the sorting out begin.

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The uppermost layer is lacquer of the rst stratum (reddish brown lacquer); it is the least sticky, of yellowish brown colour and limpid. The resin is then ltered to completely remove all impurities, put into earthenware or ceramic jars, and continuously and evenly stirred with bamboo or wooden sticks for several hours to get rid of vapour. The next layer is lacquer of the second stratum; it is stickier and of darker, yellowish-brown colour. Iron containers should now be used. One must stir the resin with an iron rod for several hours to obtain a black, glossy lacquer known as then lacquer. The undermost stratum is very sticky and soft, of muddy yellow colour. It stiens when dried out and is called hom lacquer. It should be noted that lacquer is not a harmless substance. Liquid lacquer is a common skin irritant and a cause of contact dermatitis, as well as being potentially carcinogenic. It becomes harmless when dry. Black lacquer stems from a chemical reaction between lacquer and iron, and results from stirring the lacquer with an iron rod for a few days. Lacquer will be mixed with various natural or articial dyes to produce the colours the artists want. Several shades of red are extracted from a naturally occurring red mineral, cinnabar (mercuric sulde). White is produced from eggshell. Eggs from ducks are preferred because they have a better structure than hens eggs. The eggshells are cleaned and sometimes even burned to obtain a brownish tinge. Most bright colours come from articial dyes.

The lacquer tree

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Other Materials
Several other materials may be used to make lacquer paintings, some of the most common being gold leaf and silver leaf. A thin layer of silver powder allows the black board to shine through and thus create a shade eect. Gold leaf is often applied as the nal layer. A range of other materials may also be used, such as shells, sand, epoxy and clay.

Applying Colours and Lacquer

Making a lacquer painting is a long and arduous process. It may take several weeks, depending on the specic technique of the artist and how many layers of lacquer are included. It is important to keep in mind that the lacquer layers are painted and applied with uneven thickness so as to create an interesting array of interfaces (and colours) after the grinding and polishing is done. Some artists have modied this process and come up with their own innovations. In general, the process is often like this: An outline of the composition is drawn with chalk on the black board Egg shell is inserted into carved areas of the board to create white areas Layers of clear lacquer and coloured lacquer are painted, and each layer is allowed to dry, then polished before the subsequent layer is applied Silver leaf or silver powder is added in one layer More layers of clear and coloured lacquer are painted with grinding and polishing of the lacquer layers Extensive grinding and polishing expose various layers with dierent colours and interesting interface patterns Final polishing is done by charcoal and human hair and gold leaf is applied if required

Care
A lacquer painting is very durable. The board is hard and strong and is not easily damaged. The painting can easily be polished by the palm of the hand to make it cleaner and more lustrous.

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A NEW NATIONALISM: CONTEMPORARY LACQUER PAINTING

The ideology of nationalism became a strong impetus for modern Vietnam in determining its artistic life. Many of the pioneering lacquer painters were part of movements that were also involved in the ght for the foundation of independence and the reunication of North and South Vietnam. During the revolution, technical meticulousness and maturity were superseded as the focus for painting by the desire to use art for political propaganda. However, such consciousness would become an important foundation for a future generation of lacquer painters. In Vietnam, nationalistic consciousness metamorphosed naturally through the various administrative changes that occurred throughout the twentieth century. Until the advent of Doi Moi in the mid-1980s and particularly in the years that followed the end of the war in 1975, Vietnams artists lived meagrely; mostly under the shadow of Vietnams political machinery and a few expatriate patrons, often meeting their daily needs through other forms of occupation. Until then, artistic ideologies once professed in the early 20th century by the French at the cole Superieure des Beaux-Arts dIndochine were stied and artists were largely limited to socialist realism, which at times translated into romantic realism; for it needs to be acknowledged that Vietnamese literature and poetry tinged with romanticism has been integral to the Vietnamese cultural psyche. Nevertheless, the discourse espoused by these artists created the seeds for the birth of a new generation of lacquer artists. Furthermore, the research that resulted with new pigments and techniques as well as the academic discourse by artists such as Nguyen Tu Nghiem and To Noc Van added to the development of lacquer painting, which would be embraced by future generations. Until 1980, Classicism and Impressionism were the only Western art styles that made their way into Vietnamese painting practice. Because of the Socialist inuences of China and the Soviet Union, abstract art and anything else that could not be literally translated were deemed subversive. Though artists in the former South Vietnam had not been restricted by these principles, their art lacked the scholarly vocabulary of the North. Hanoi remained the nations most important repository of the arts. As for scope, artists were no longer limited in their choice of subject matter or style. In formal art institutions, art students could once again nd much needed information on international developments of art and its stages. This dierence became even more pronounced with the emergence of a new generation of lacquer artists for whom local content became most signicant but whose practise had an atmosphere of modernity that could readily absorb European styles. With a cultural network no longer limited to ocial art, artists such as Nguyen Thanh Chuong who had studied at the Fine Arts College in Hanoi during the 1960s could nally express themselves freely. Like most artists of his and an earlier generation, he had served in the military and after the war he worked as a magazine illustrator. Guided by traditional folk art and inuenced by Cubism, Thanh Chuong used the primary colours associated with Dong Ho pictures to adapt his unique style to lacquer painting. While Thanh Chuongs art could easily be associated with Picassos Cubism, however like Nguyen Tu Nghiem decades before him, he too argued that his art was not inuenced by Picasso. Instead, he was inspired by the strong lines of traditional folk sculpture, the linear architecture of village communal houses and the very simplicity of village life.

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The transfer of socialist expression that resulted from Doi Moi is best articulated as a process of acculturation as a new generation of lacquer painters infused a more liberal expressionism to traditional Vietnamese art forms. For it was in lacquer painting that cultures past and modern, from West and East, were juxtaposed and inuenced each other. While the future of capitalist models would give rise to a myriad of popular cultures, these artists instead chose to honour an ancient academic tradition; but more importantly they used the medium to assert their Vietnamese identity. The great paradox of the Ho Chi Minh era was that cultural life was obliged to recognise the existence of indigenous culture yet digress from pastoral and romanticised notions that were popular subjects during the French rule. Thus born from the cultural elite, the art of the revolution made public the pluralistic lives of Vietnamese and the inherent culture. Meanwhile in the social realm of the art world, private art galleries mushroomed both in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City, giving rise to new platforms of opportunities for artists while government-run cultural institutions like the Hanoi Fine Arts Association and the Hanoi Fine Arts Museum continued with their own agenda. After Doi Moi, symptoms of neo-liberalism inevitably spread amongst artists as capitalism and consumerism became more visible. The ensuing boom in the art market in the 1990s aected not only the value of Vietnams art but most often dictated the content. While romanticised notions of Vietnams past became commercially viable subjects, artistic scholarship continued to prevail within the tradition of lacquer painting, which would be imbued with fresh artistic energy. More than any other traditional art forms, it has been the redeployment of lacquer painting that most acutely references traditional Vietnamese culture. Although many artists adopted the medium and added it to their portfolios, the potential of lacquer painting as a key form of self-denition would appeal to a group of select artists. Hanoi is a city that has traditionally been powerfully dened by artists visions and it is no coincidence that the most important lacquer painters reside and have found inspiration there. Dinh Quan, Trinh Tuan, Le Quang Ha, Truong Tan and Cong Kim Hoa have attested to the academic principles of lacquer painting, while adding their own identity through their very individual expressionism and scholarship. Both Dinh Quan and Trinh Tuan rank as amongst the most important lacquer painters of their generation. Regarded as master painters, their works highlight the intrinsic nature of lacquer painting to which as a medium they have brought new vitality and solidarity. In Dinh Quans paintings, gures are treated as symbols and serve as vehicles for exploring the formal aspects of lacquer painting. His large-scale works have spontaneous qualities with clear and direct compositions. Though he continues to uphold traditional disciplines associated with lacquer painting, it has been Dinh Quans embracement of a very individual creativity and artistic rendering of lacquer that demonstrates his ability to stretch the possibilities of lacquer itself. From his earlier depictions of the female form to his current portraits, Dinh Quan has oered glimpses into his personal history while quietly staying abreast of the changing socio-economic landscape of Vietnam.

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Trinh Tuans prominence lies not only in gurative expressionism but also in the relationship between emotion and the physical form. His looming and imposing gures emotionally embody the changing paradigm of Vietnams social culture and especially the landscape of Hanoi. By absorbing symbols from the lives of ordinary people, the emotional expressionism of Trinh Tuan, which sometimes resembles the power of European expressionists like Van Gogh, has ignored the rules and rigours of beautication typically associated with Vietnams art. Because art frames both critical and social practice as well as questions of aesthetics, emotion and human experience are dependent on such denition to communicate meaning. Inscribed within Vietnams history of artistic expression is its own nostalgia for a time when culture held a privileged place. Because of the evolving economic and social currency after Doi Moi, questions are raised relating to the rapidly changing proles of traditional values that had once been the essence of Vietnamese society. Within this historical perspective, Le Quang Ha has singularly assessed the changing parameters of his social environment. Noted for his overt and uncompromising artistic vocabulary that at rst appears enigmatic but is addressing the current realism, Le Quang Has art not only challenges established perception of culturally accepted subjects but exercises a deliberate imagery with satire rather than nostalgia. His art when executed through the meticulous layering process of traditional lacquer painting is lled with iconic symbols of contemporary Vietnam. For Le Quang Ha, lacquer painting is a medium to be explored, one lled with historical allegories while allowing him to explore the experiences of the world he lives in. In Vietnams conservative Confucian landscape, Truong Tan has chosen to openly address his homosexuality through his art. Highly articulate, the former professor at the Hanoi Fine Arts University has challenged traditional assumptions of Vietnamese artists. By totally rejecting popular modes of representation and rejecting typical academic styles, his art had originally been viewed uneasily in Vietnam. In principle, his art addresses the sociopolitical conceptions of gender and prejudice. However, despite the continuity of these tensions, Truong Tan has found that lacquer painting aords him the greatest opportunity to express his Vietnamese identity. Cong Kim Hoa is one of the very few women artists who work entirely in lacquer. Highly regarded for her abstract expressionist landscapes, her expertise lies in the merging of a variety of artistic disciplines. Originally trained in ceramic arts and later studying under the master lacquer painter, Dang Ngoc Bach, her renement of the genre is embedded in a sensitivity that is lled with detail. Through the detailed layering of lacquer, she reects the rhythm of her own life and its challenges as she mingles nuances of traditional and modern life. Vietnamese lacquer painting is distinct from other art forms: the philosophical ideas within which the art has ourished and developed provide a background to the endearing nature of the work of Vietnamese artists. The technical skills honed by artists who lived and worked together in craft guilds thrive today, while the work of this generation of artists continues to reveal the inuences of their individual sensibilities. In fact, it is this generation of master lacquer painters who have evolved the aesthetic that breathes new life into a contemporary tradition. And it is in this movement, which when realised in form or colour by the hand of the artist, has its own rhythm or inner coherence. It is in this essential humanism, which has persisted for decades, that the real language of Vietnamese art lies.
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CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS WORKING IN LACQUER

Dinh Quan (b. 1964)
Dinh Quan was born in Haiphong and though his early years were dened by the rigid ideologies of Communist North Vietnam, his childhood was enveloped by his mothers love for traditional song and storytelling as well as the visual aesthetics of Vietnams colourful festivals that enriched an otherwise totalitarian atmosphere. Highly regarded as one of Vietnams most prominent modern lacquer painters, he is best known for his depictions of feminine forms, rendered with masterful brushwork that has dened his distinctive Abstract Expressionist language. Dinh Quans blend of modernism and the traditional principles of lacquer painting are most evident in Self Portrait, wherein he surveys his own sensitivities while probing his consciousness for the deepest thoughts. Red has always been a dominant colour in his paintings as he regards it as part of the pulse of his Vietnamese heritage.

Dinh Quan | Self Portrait, 2006 | Lacquer and dyes on board | 120 x 120 cm

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A Formidable Horse displays Dinh Quans disregard to traditional opinions on lacquer painting. Here the physicality of his expressionism is once again articulated through a female form juxtaposed with the strength of a horse as he demonstrates his subjects restless qualities through sweeping and voluptuous relief brush work, which has become his hallmark. Lacquer paintings are normally at, but Dinh Quans innovative incorporation of epoxy has enabled the creation of textured surfaces to his lacquer paintings.

Dinh Quan | A Formidable Horse, 2004 | Lacquer, dyes, egg shell, epoxy, gold and silver on board | 120 x 120 cm
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Trinh Tuan (b. 1961)

Trinh Tuan has been a masterful proponent of lacquer painting since he adopted the medium in the early 1990s. His use of luxurious pigments and textures are detailed as he asserts his creativity. Over the years, each of Trinh Tuans paintings has carried their very own message. From early works such as By Myself, he has not only displayed a highly sophisticated and meticulous rendering of his emotions but importantly he has continuously imbued his art with the emotional values of mankind and society. Trinh Tuans association with lacquer painting is both personal and academic and he is classied as a master lacquer painter who has further rened and developed this unique artistic discipline with an expressionism that transcends the usual process of painting.

Trinh Tuan | By Myself, 1999 | Lacquer, dyes and mixed media on board | 40 x 40 cm

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From the calm of his earlier paintings, Trinh Tuan has confronted the nature of his chosen medium. He has heightened his own intensities through a very poignant rendering of the challenges of contemporary life in Hanoi, for example in the very personal expressionism in Shaken. It has been such expressionism that has dened his disciplined artistic personality, and which is present in all his paintings.

Trinh Tuan | Shaken, 2008 | Lacquer, dyes, silver and gold on board | 100 x 100 cm

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Truong Tan (b. 1963)

Truong Tan | The Last Leaf, 2010 | Lacquer, dyes and mixed media on board | 100 x 80 cm

Truong Tans artistic strength issues directly from what he feels and experiences. An image-maker with a rare ability to work his compositions and space through a very unique artistic language, his work addresses the relationship between sexual agency and cultural expectations. For Truong Tan, the continuity of these tensions is best expressed through the traditional art discipline of lacquer painting. The ease with which he expresses himself through lacquer paintings such as The Divine and The Last Leaf relate to the freedom he has accorded himself both in his art and his personal self. An internationally renowned artist, Truong Tans lacquer paintings display a classicism that is a rarity for his generation. His works were recently (2013) exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum, New York, as part of their Asian No Country exhibition.
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Truong Tan | The Divine, 2010 | Lacquer, dyes and mixed media on board | 80 x 100 cm

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Cong Kim Hoa (b. 1962)

Cong Kim Hoa is one of the very few woman lacquer painters. The humanity apparent in such paintings as Orange Composition reects her quiet and silent expression. By transforming three-dimensional forms onto the at surface of the lacquer painting, Cong Kim Hoas compositions are interwoven with impromptu patterns of the everyday and the rich colours that describe the spontaneous world of family. Over the decade, Cong Kim Hoa has developed her artistic language to include a profound harmony of colours and textures that reect the renement and skill of her lacquer painting.

Cong Kim Hoa | Orange Composition, 2001 | Lacquer, dyes, silver and gold leaf on board | 100 x 100 cm

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Le Quang Ha (b. 1963)

The earlier work of Le Quang Ha was lled with visual symphonies of romanticism. However, his concern for the moral deterioration of Vietnams social environment prompted him to more overtly express his opinions. The deliberate and exaggerated gures in works such as Lady Lust demonstrate Le Quang Has critical counter balance to the overtly pleasing art that has often dened the Vietnamese aesthetic. The volatile characteristics and gestures of his subjects together with his vibrant palette that he skilfully translates onto lacquer reect the complexities that pervade Vietnams bonds with its past.

Le Quang Ha | Lady Lust, 2006 | Lacquer and dyes on board | 80 x 100 cm

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Nguyen Thanh Chuong (b. 1949)

Inspired by the stylized forms of sculptures, common in traditional village communal houses, Thanh Chongs work is renowned for a unique style that combines the theories of Cubism with traditional folk art painting. Many would say that his paintings are inuenced by European Cubist artists, however such denitions are imprecise for his lacquer paintings are in fact embellished with the primary colours and translucency of traditional Vietnamese folk paintings.

Nguyen Thanh Chuong | Love, 1999 | Lacquer and dyes on board | 100 x 100 cm

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Bui Huu Hung (b. 1957)

Bui Huu Hung graduated from the Hanoi Fine Arts University and subsequently studied the ner aspects of lacquer painting in the studio of Bui Tuan Thuan whose teachings he regards as the most inuential to the development of his art. Renowned for their technique, Hungs lacquer paintings are imbued with a formalistic style that consists of successive layers of hues and details that reect both a passion for Vietnams mythical past as well as for realistic interpretation.

Bui Huu Hung | The Queen | Lacquer, dyes, silver and gold leaf on board |122 x 150 cm Courtesy of Green Palm Gallery

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Vu Thang (b. 1970)

Vu Thang | Life, 1998 | Lacquer, dyes and mixed media on canvas | 300 x 170 cm (3 panels) | Courtesy of Green Palm Gallery Vu Thangs execution of lacquer painting is exemplied through the use of non-traditional materials such as this painting of lacquer on canvas.

Other well known Vietnamese lacquer painters include Do Minh Tri, Do Xuan Doan, Kim Quang, Nguyen Dinh Quang, Nguyen Xuan Viet and Vu Duc Trung.

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INDEX
Boi Tran Huynh 8 Bui Huu Hung 51 China 8, 12, 36, 39, 52 Communist 12,13, 30, 36, 42 Cong Kim Hoa 40, 41, 48 Dang Ngoc Bach 41 Dao Minh Tri 52 Dinh Quan 40, 42, 43 Doi Moi 39, 40, 41 Do Thi Ninh 35 Do Xuan Doan 52 Duc Minh Collection 7 cole Superieure des Beaux-Arts dIndochine 7, 36, 39 French 5, 7, 8 10, 12, 22, 28, 36, 39, 40 Fukuoka Asian Art Museum 35 Guggenheim Museum 46 Hanoi 5, 7, 8, 18, 19, 22, 27, 39, 40, 41 Ho Chi Minh 12, 13, 40 Hoang Tich Chu 26 Huyuh Van Gam 32 Inguimberty, Joseph 8, 23, 27 Kim Quang 52 Lacquer Tree 37 Le Dynasty 8 Le Hong Thai 35 Le Pho 10 Le Quang Ha 40, 41, 49 Ly Dynasty 29 Mai Van Nam 33 Nam Son 7 New York 46 Nguyen Dinh Quang 52 Nguyen Duc Nung 21, 25 Nguyen Gia Tri 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, 27 Nguyen Khang 35 Nguyen Nhu Huan 35 Nguyen Sang 28, 29 Nguyen Thanh Chuong 39, 50 Nguyen Thanh Le 35 Nguyen The Vinh 35 Nguyen Tien Chung 21 Nguyen Tu Nghiem 12, 13, 24, 39 Nguyen Van Tho 7 Nguyen Van Ty 20 Nguyen Xuan Viet 52 Paris 7, 9 Pham Duc Cuong 30 Pham Hau 10, 19 Phan Ke An 23 Phnom Penh 22 Phung Pham 34 Singapore Art Museum 5, 9, 35 Socialist 12, 13, 25, 26, 36 Tardieu, Victor 7, 8, 18 Taylor, Nora 8 To Ngoc Van 12, 22, 24, 27, 39 Tran Dinh Tho 31 Tran Tuong Cong 8 Tran Van Can 10, 27 Trinh Tuan 5, 40, 41, 44, 45 Truong Be 35 Truong Quoc Binh 5 Truong Tan 40, 41, 46, 47 Vietnam Fine Arts Museum 5, 13, 23 Vu Duc Trung 52 Vu Thang 35, 52

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