Author Archives: Art Nation

Timeless aesthetics and sentiments

Formed at the same time as the establishment of the École des Beaux-arts de l’Indochine (1924), Vietnam modern art has unfolded over nearly 100 years through historical ups and downs, through severe wars, amidst cultural transformations, and within the shifts of aesthetic and artistic perceptions. To script its chapters and move towards integration with human […]

Unfurling Vietnamese portraitures in the bamboo path

Currently attributed to painter Chen Jianru (阵鉴如), “The Mahasattva of Truc Lam leaving the mountains” (“The Mahasattva of Truc Lam”) is one of the rare pieces in the history of Chinese painting from the Yuan dynasty to depict a main subject matter from Dai Viet (ancient Vietnam). Behind the depiction of an otherworldly Zen master, […]

In dazzling palimpsests seized Kieu’s poetic residues

When Nguyen Dang Tuyen, Master of Temple Mong Lien1 – a contemporaneous kindred spirit of Nguyen Du – prefaced the epic poem “Doan truong tan thanh (斷腸新聲, A new cry from a broken heart)” with the memorable turn of phrase, “The story of romantic love is ever the same, yet the cry of woe is […]