“Echoes of Tonkin: Vietnamese Modern Art” opens in Hong Kong to challenge reductive narratives and clichés about 20th-century Vietnamese art.
“Modern Vietnamese art cannot be traced to a single origin, nor reduced to a simple story of influence,” write exhibition co-curators Trần Đình Thục Đoan and Leah Đỗ in the catalogue’s opening. Spanning 1905 to 1960 and including works by Albert Cézard, Victor Tardieu, Léa Lafugie, Joseph Inguimberty, Alix Aymé, Lê Phổ, Vũ Cao Đàm, Mai Trung Thứ, Phạm Hậu, and Nguyễn Gia Trí, the exhibition is arranged chronologically not to suggest a linear progression but rather to showcase a collection of individual artists working independently in a collaborative atmosphere of adoption and adaptation.
Notably, the exhibition begins before the 1924 founding of the École des Beaux-Arts, the French-led school in Hanoi that produced some of Vietnam’s most well-known 20th-century artists. In doing so, “Echoes of Tonkin” stresses that while the school precipitated a dramatic shift in the country’s artwork, there already existed a rich visual culture with talented artists across mediums. Moreover, while the school formalized training and offered resources, there had long been exchanges between French and Vietnamese artists as exemplified by Albert Cézard’s 1905 work, ‘Scène du Vietnam’ (Scene in Vietnam).
‘Scène du Vietnam’ (Scene in Vietnam) by Albert Cézard.
Adding more complexity to the established narratives of art development in Vietnam is the exhibition’s inclusion of two Chăm statues dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries. They serve as reminders that long before the French or even the Kinh occupied parts of Vietnam, another culture with a rich and meaningful relationship with art thrived.
Chăm sculptures (artist unknown).
The statue of Ganesha reveals the deviations of religious traditions amongst cultures in the region. The Buddha, meanwhile, points to overlap, as does Lê Phổ’s ‘L’illumination de Bouddha’ (Buddha's Enlightenment), which applies creative interpretation of traditional imagery. Painted on silk in 1947 in the wake of World War II and personal hardships, the curators explain that it is “not merely an illustration of religious history but a message of hope amid the world’s escalating political turmoil.”
Lê Phổ’s ‘L’illumination de Bouddha’ (Buddha's Enlightenment)
In addition to silk and sandstone, the exhibition includes oil paint on canvas, terracotta and lacquer. This later medium allows for particularly interesting rumination on the changes in art at the time. Nguyễn Gia Trí’s 1960 ‘Bateaux dans la baie d'Halong’ (Fishing Boats in Ha Long Bay) presents the transition of the medium from a decorative craft to one of ambitious painting. Created seven years into his exile from his home in Northern Vietnam, Nguyễn Gia Trí’s work is one of deep emotion rendered with subtlety and technical ambition.
Nguyễn Gia Trí’s 1960 ‘Bateaux dans la baie d'Halong’ (Fishing Boats in Ha Long Bay)
Similar technical skill is forefronted by Vũ Cao Đàm’s ‘Tête de femme’ (Head of a Woman). Uniquely talented in both sculpture and painting, Vũ Cao Đàm produced works that introduce the familiar theme of idealized female figures. The sculpture was created while in exile, and the act of idealizing a female face with pristine features and headdress represents “not an aesthetic choice but memory made visual,” as described in the illuminating catalogue, which relies on significant research to describe, date, and situate the pieces in the artist’s individual lives as well as the cultural and political developments of the time.
Vũ Cao Đàm’s ‘Tête de femme’ (Head of a Woman)
While limited in number of pieces, “Echoes of Tonkin: Vietnamese Modern Art” is expansive in its aims to reconsider and redefine people’s understanding of the nature of influence and advancement at the time, alongside interests. When asked to elaborate on what “familiar assumptions” the exhibition challenges, Pascal de Sarthe, who founded the gallery in Paris in 1977, explains, “The idea that Vietnamese modern art is essentially decorative: graceful young women in áo dài on silk, made to please a French and later an international clientele. The market has encouraged this image, because those works sell well. But it hides the ambition, the variety and the intellectual seriousness of these artists. A second assumption, closely related, is that the story belongs to a handful of painters who settled in France. The reality is much richer, and much of it happened in Vietnam.”
Photos courtesy of e Sarthe Gallery.
“Echoes of Tonkin: Vietnamese Modern Art” is open from now until November 21 at de Sarthe Gallery in Hong Kong.
