Author Archives: Art Nation

From the Bach Dang Victory to the Great Triumph of 30 April 1975

Inspired by three victories against the Mongol invaders on the Bach Dang River between the 10th and 13th centuries, these artworks honoured the patriotic spirit of past generations. Employing a surrealist painting style and diverse material expressions, the exhibition was a cultural resonance achieved through the arrangement of large abstract sculptures. “From the Bach Dang […]

Vietnam: The landscape of memories

Featuring approximately 110 artworks – including propaganda posters, battlefield photography, ideal homeland landscapes, and contemporary works reflecting individual memories – it unveils the complex “memory-scape” of a nation defined by radical shifts. The show features pieces by artists born in or rooted in Vietnam, as well as Asian artists closely related to the country. A […]

Vietnam through the lenses of expositions

Recreating the atmosphere of both domestic and international expositions, the exhibition “Fairs and exhibitions – Indochina at its best” evokes a significant part of the collective memory of Indochina. With a coherent layout divided into two sections: the expositions in Hanoi, and international ones involving Indochina. The exhibition hall was modelled after the Annam sections […]

Beauty will save the world: Eight artists from Southeast Asia

Drawing inspiration from Dostoevsky’s novel “The idiot”, the exhibition features existing and newly commissioned works by three generations of contemporary artists from Southeast Asia, in which Vietnamese art is represented Vu Dan Tan (1946–2009), Dinh Q. Le (1968–2024), and Bui Cong Khanh (b. 1972). Together with artists from the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia, their […]

Le Pho, Mai-Thu, Vu Cao Dam – Pioneers of Vietnamese Modern Art in France

This was the first large-scale retrospective at the Cernuschi Museum featuring three members of the “quartet” representing the development of Vietnamese art in France in the 20th century. The exhibition presented to the public 150 artworks from 25 different collections, hailed as a unique opportunity to observe the stylistic evolution of Le Pho, Mai-Thu, and […]

6 PM in the afternoon. The day was long. The night is long, too. I am always in the past:…

A gesture marking the end of their three-month residency, the show unfolds as an amalgam of thought fragments in which, intuitively and with a dizzying dose of cheekiness, the concept of time surfaces through the artists’ use of movement, objects, and period-defining mementoes and symbols. Truly a human construct, time in this instance is stretched, […]

Womb of Fire

“Womb of Fire” arises from the terrain of quiet persistence. In Vietnamese, fire and blood flow as inseparable currents. Fire – where stories, songs, and sustenance gather. Blood – bloodlines of generations whose sacrifice and resilience courses through one’s veins. Yet, blood also carries the pulse of intensity, a fiery determination, a spirit that is […]

A Glimpse of Luu Cong Nhan

Featuring 41 paintings, primarily in watercolour and oil, along with one oil on a typewriter, the show evokes significant milestones in Luu Cong Nhan’s expansive career: his early period with portraits and wartime sketches (1950s–1960s), his exposure to and influence from Western abstract (circa 1970–1972), his years living in Hoi An (1984–1985), and his focus […]