The Vietnamese

Hello everyone! As we may know, art interferes with every part of our lives, from the way how we dress, to the fork, the spoon in our kitchen, and even the toilet seats that we sit on!  Thanks to arts, we are able to express thoughts, feelings, and dreams through lines and sculptures. Belle's Art Gallery is honored to present a  unique Art Gallery that collect Artworks from various times when the Vietnamese culture grew, innovated, and reformed. Vietnamese culture is a culture that grew up from war, thus people continuously fighting for their families, and living on a day-to-day basis. Vietnamese Arts mostly reflects the beauty in daily life struggles. Vietnamese culture also inherited part of what is left from China domination for more an a thousand years ago. Thus, there is still the presence of bright color contrast, with some of the old-schooled customs continued to exist in Vietnamese society until today , Drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photography collected from 10...

Title: The Vietnamese List of Artists: Dong Ho Folk Painting (painter)  Nguyen, Khac Chinh (painter) Nghiem, Xuan Hung (painter) To, Ngoc Van (painter) Nguyen, Hai Nam (painter) Nguyen, Dai Giang (painter) Sebastien Laval (photographer) Thu Dong Rice Painting Group (painter) Luong Dung (painter) Quoc Huy (photographer) There have been several years since I left Vietnam, and I would say there is something about its heritage that is so stunning and delightful. It is not as grand as Wonders of the World neither is it classical and royal like European heritage.  Rather, it holds the very simple but elegant values; very small but it sufficiently reflects the insight of Vietnamese people. As its title, the artworks below would provide viewer some of the prominent Vietnamese traditions and the people there. This exhibition does not hold any political nor economic purpose, it is just an art show created by an art lover.

Dong Ho Folks, Mice Wedding , Woodblock prints, 10”x15”, ca. 16 00. Dong Ho is a small village in Thuan Thanh, Bac Ninh province, located on the southern side of the Duong river (30km to the east from Hanoi,) is one of the villages that remains to preserve ancient cultural relies of Kinh Bac area (red river delta, north of Vietnam.) Dong Ho paintings have about 300 years of history in the north of Vietnam.  Luu Duy Dan, Vice President of Vietnamese Craft Village Association, says: “Dong Ho paintings are artifacts of Vietnamese culture games. For example, paintings showing… a Rat’s wedding… depict cultural traditions concerned with education and life lessons”. The painting is hand made from the bark of a tree called Dzo. The bark of Dzo is stored in the water for months, then grounded and mixed with sea shell. The painting depicts a wedding parade with the mouse bride (sitting) and the mouse groom (riding the horse) together with other mice. There are two mice on the to...

Nguyễn Khắc Chính, Searching Real Face, Oil on Canvas, 49.21” x 83.08”. 2011 Nuyen, Khac Chinh is a contemporary Vietnamese artist. He was born in 1984 in Hanoi, Vietnam, and graduated in 2006 from HanoiUniversity of Fine Arts. Nguyen's painting depicts a young woman in a long yellow dress, wearing a mask on her face and holding a mask in her hand. Under her feet lie several masks. Chinh says the real is mixed with the false, as it is in contemporary life. "Searching for real face" is a self-portrait painting that is painted according to a realistic style combined with surrealist style. The content of the painting expresses the inner exploration of looking for the real nature or of true worth. Social life seems like a big play and everybody seems like an actor inside it. They live with many different faces. They often change their nature to suit goals or benefits that they have formulated. To achieve these goals, they sometimes have to lose themselves and when l...

Nghiem Xuan Hung, Girl with Monochord , Oil on canvas, 35” x 57”, 2010. Nghiem Xuan Hung 1953: Born in Hanoi, Vietnam. 1982: Graduated from Hanoi Fine Arts University and then worked in Vietnam Fine Arts Association The painting depicts a traditional girl playing Monochord, a Vietnamese instrument. The painting once again gives the context about Vietnamese perspectives on women in the very old days. We believe that an accomplished woman should be able to occupy “the 4 talents” including: playing instrument, playing Vietnamese chess, poetry, and drawing. Nowadays, some of traditional families in Vietnam still hold these values.    

Van To, Thiếu nữ bên hoa huệ (Young Girl by Lilies). Oil on Canvas,  1943.    Van To (Tô Ngọc Vân) 1906–1954, was one of the greatest Vietnamese painter. He was a master in Vietnamese oil painting.  His painting style was influenced by the French impressionist, Gauguin.  Tô paid special attention to forms and rendered with delicacy.  He also showed great passion of colors.  He brought to Vietnamese art the strong harmonies of colors that later became very popular among Vietnamese artists.  The painting depict an elegant young girl, wearing Ao Dai, sitting by lilies. The combine of light and use of white reflect the purity of the girl, while her melancholy look depicts her deep and beautiful soul.Tô’s masterpiece was an important movement in Vietnamese Art Revolution.

Nam Nguyen.  Lotus.  Lacquer painting. 35.43” x 47.24”. 2014. Being born 1984 (October 7, 1984) in Hanoi, Viet Nam, Nguyen Nam is early in his career and is enjoying the experience of self expression in his work. When you meet him it is easy to see his joy of life and the fun he is experiencing through art. His subject matter at the present time is a reflection of self – explosions of bright colors expressed in a bold and dramatic way through flowers. He paints flowers because he experiences the beauty within them. The painting vividly depicts beautiful lotuses with vibrant, rich colors. This is one of the latest paintings of Nguyen in 2014. The gold mixes with red background suggest an aggressive and complicated society while the white lotuses represent the purity that Vietnamese people desire to achieve. Lotus is considered to be national flower of Vietnam.

Dai Giang Nguyen, Ca trù , Oil on Canvas, 35.43” x 37.40”. 2006 Dai Giang Nguyen (1944), was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, but he lives and works in Seattle, United States. Mr. Dai Nguyen is successful artist who has distinguished himself by creating and developing a new school of art, known as the “Upside-Down-Art” . In connection with this innovative accomplishment, he has been responsible for writing the “Manifesto of Upsidedownism”. His first Solo Exhibition was presented in Belgium from 3/8 until 25/9/2013, at VPalace, 33 Wolstraat, 2000 Antwerp city. About painting: Ca trù , an ancient genre of chamber music featuring female vocalists, with origins in northern Vietnam. There are 3 figures in the painting: On the front right, the female singer provides the vocals whilst playing her "phách" (small wooden sticks beaten on a small bamboo platform to serve as percussion). She is accompanied by a man (in the middle) who plays the "đàn đáy", a long-necked, 3-string...

Sébastien Laval, Children on the Way from Lai Chau, Digital print on Hahnemuhle matte paper, 15.35” x 15.74”, 1997 Sebastien Laval is a photographer living in Poitiers France. Introduced to photography as a young man by his grandfather in Paris, he quickly developed a passion for documenting the life around him. In the early 90’s Laval had an opportunity to travel to Vietnam. Traveling throughout the country he quickly developed a deep interest in documenting the lives of the ethnic minorities living in the remote regions of Vietnam. Laval has presented his work on the ethnic minorities in the prestigious Hue festival in 2008 and in 2010. As his interest in ethnic minorities in Vietnam, the photograph depicts the children who live in Lai Chau, a province in northern Vietnam. This is also the region that reside most of Vietnamese  ethnic minorities. There are 54 ethnics in total that live in Vietnam including Kinh (Vietnamese). 

Thu Dong Rice Painting Group, One Pillar Pagoda, rice paitning, 8” x 8”, 2014 Located in Sai Gon, Vietnam, Thu Dong Rice Painting Group is a noticeable art group in making rice painting. They create a variety of rice paintings about religions, portraits, animals, scenery & Architecture, Art & Abstract, etc.  Although they continuously released new product, the group’s latest official exhibition was held in 2010 with the title “Season of Bright Stars”. The rice painting depicts a famous historic architecture of Vietnam:  One Pillar Pagoda that   located in Hanoi. The pagoda was built by Emperor Lý in 1040. It is the typical architecture of Lý dynasty with Buddhist influences. During the Lý Dynasty era, the temple was the site of an annual royal ceremony on the occasion of Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. A Buddha-bathing ceremony was held annually by the monarch, and it attracted monks and laymen alike to the ceremony. The monarch would then free a ...

Luong Dung, “ After School”.  Oil on canvas painting. 25.6" x 31.5". 2007 Phuong Dung was born in 1966 in Bac Lieu, and graduated from Fine Arts University in Sai Gon, 1992. She has many private collections in USA , Singapore , France , Belgium , Swiss , Australia , Japan , Thailand. About painting: The contemporary painting depicts girls standing around talking about their day after school, is an average scene that is regularly seen after school. The artist was able to capture a mundane activity and turn this into a piece of art that is tantalizing to the eye. Being the national symbol, Ao Dai became School uniform for highschool girls. Combining with Non la (palm-leaf conical hat), the scene creates the innocence and simplicity of the girls at the time. The painting reminds me of my highschool time when I wore Ao Dai as and rode bicycles as well. Indeed, those are the most exceptional symbols that represent Vietnamese beauty, I would say.

Photographer Quoc Huy, “ Áo Dài Khoe Nét Xuân Thì ” (Ao dai brings Spring breeze), photography, 2008. Photographer Quoc Huy was born in 1965 and started his career in 1991. Seeking for the beauty of the soul is his career goal. He said: “The most important point: no matter how skillful a photograph is, if the “soul” doesn’t exist, it’s worthless”. Quoc Huy is also known as the photographer of celebrities. The picture contains  Ao Dai and Non La as Phuong Dung's A fter School; however, it consists of other meanings and controversies. First, the curves of young girl behind the thin silk of Ao Dai call for the purity and passion. Both Ao Dai and Non La (the hat) symbolizes Vietnamese culture. The painting challenge many conventional perspectives about beauty and art. It is a scandalous artwork since it creates criticism in public and provokes old-school perspectives. To modern society, the photograph is exceptionally artistic, while many critics thought it was seductive and e...

Throughout the process of creating this exhibition, I found it very interesting to collect artworks by many artists regardless of the time period and art field. I could borrow these artworks to present my topic, in his case, about the Vietnamese. I have made many researches and learned more about Vietnamese Arts that I actually never done before.  Since I have already known about Vietnamese culture, it came pretty naturally about choosing the artwork that related to my topic. However, there are some challenges in the process. First, since Vietnamese Art did not develop widely until contemporary period, I found it hard to look for the information of the artworks, especially the date they were completed. Some of them I could only found the period of time that they were created. The second disadvantage of the exhibition is that it only contains Vietnamese artists, yet it does not reflect other foreign perspectives about Vietnamese culture. In general, I like the idea of organizin...