Vietnamese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in Vietnam or by Vietnamese artists.
Vietnamese art has a long and rich history, the earliest examples of which date back as far as the Stone Age around 8,000 BCE.Art in Context
With the millennium of Chinese domination starting in the 2nd century BC, Vietnamese art undoubtedly absorbed many Chinese influences, which would continue even following independence from China in the 10th century AD. However, Vietnamese art has always retained many distinctively Vietnamese characteristics.
By the 19th century, the influence of French art took hold in Vietnam, having a large hand in the birth of modern Vietnamese art.
Traditional art Prehistory art
Pottery dating to the Stone Age () has been found in Bắc Sơn, Vietnam. This pottery was made from clay, and in its beginnings was largely basic and lacking any artistic flare. Moving into the Neolithic era Vietnamese pottery and ceramics started to develop rapidly, showing signs of decor.
Ancient art
The highly developed Đông Sơn culture that flourished in North Vietnam (from about 1000 BC to the 4th century BC) was the civilization responsible for the world-famous Đông Sơn drums, a product of their advanced bronze-casting skills.
These drums give us an important peek into early Vietnamese life. They were elaborately decorated with geometric patterns, and most importantly, depicted scenes of everyday life such as farming, warriors donning feather headdresses, construction of ships, musicians, etc.
Archaeological evidence from this period also shows that people in the area had long been weaving cloth. Many of the people depicted on the drums are shown as wearing elaborate clothing.
Chinese period (111 BCE-938 CE) During the ten centuries of rule by the Chinese, Vietnamese began to apply newly learned Chinese techniques to art and specifically ceramics, however this was in conjunction with the continued production of art based on native methods; this is proven by excavation of Chinese tombs in the area.
Dynastic art Lý-Trần-Hồ period (968-1407)
Vietnamese art and ceramics during this period of independence (approximately 10th to 15th centuries) flourished. The ceramics from this period were thought to have been largely influenced by both ancient native styles and the Tang and later Song dynasty's art, including applying the "three colors" concept to its ceramics. Chinese-influenced philosophies adopted by the Vietnamese such as Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism all had a lasting impression on Vietnamese art. Some also claim there are small traces of Cham influences to be found as well.
The Lý dynasty, beginning in the 11th century is viewed specifically as the golden age of Vietnamese art, and its ceramics became famous across East and Southeast Asia. The Lý dynasty also saw the construction of many of Vietnam's landmark structures, including the Temple of Literature, One Pillar Pagoda, and Quỳnh Lâm Temple. The Trần dynasty that immediately followed in the 13th century saw a more subdued approach to art.
Lê period (1428-1802)
The fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam was quite short-lived, lasting only about two decades, yet it was also seen as the harshest domination. Many if not most classical Vietnamese books were burnt, and thus much documentation of the era of independence lost. It is said that a more extreme than-ever process of sinicization was enforced, and countless Vietnamese resources and goods were removed and taken to China.
Nguyễn period (1802-1945)
The Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam, saw a renewed interest in ceramics and porcelain art. Imperial courts across Asia imported Vietnamese ceramics.
Despite how highly developed the performing arts (such as imperial court music and dance) became during the Nguyễn dynasty, some view other fields of arts as beginning to decline during the latter part of the Nguyễn dynasty.
Modern art Vietnamese modern art includes artistic work materialized during colonial period between the 1860s and 1970s, and significantly ascribed to the founding of "Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine" in October 1925. Before 1925, paintings and carvings were mainly created for religious purpose, in a decorative manner for example lacquered furniture and utilitarian ceramic and porcelains, subordinated to demands by the local temples and pagodas use.
A striking "shift" was obvious after the founding of Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine EBAI, observing a gradual change in perception of art, and the beginning recognition of art for art's sake. Vietnamese artists experimented with new ways of seeing, with ideas from two important French teachers, it marks an intensifying cultural transfer and modernity.
New Vietnamese Art (1925–1945)
Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine EBAI was founded by Victor Tardieu, a French academic and naturalist painter. With a report commission sent to the general Government of Indochina, Victor Tardieu recommended setting up a school "EBAI in Indochina" to train real artists. Unlike, Ecole professionnelle" in Hanoi, "Ecole des Arts Cambodgeins" and three other schools set up in Cochinchina between 1902 and 1913, these schools were professional schools to train craftsmen. Tardieu's idea was to adapt existing curriculum used in "Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris" by including art history; technical course like oil painting and perspective, to train student into real artist. He planned to "help the Vietnamese artist to get back in touch with the deep meaning and fundamental inspiration of their own traditions".
The magazine publications Ngày Nay (Today) and Phong Hoá (Mores) which were associated with Tự Lực văn đoàn (Self Reliance Literary Association), were committed to modernising Vietnamese culture through the crucial assessment of both Vietnam's tradition and Western modernity. Students in the EBAI were columnists in these two weekly magazines, illustrating cartoons and exhibition information. The stylized cartoon illustration were in fact very modern, depicting simple messages.
Oil painting
Following closely to the curriculum of Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris, oil painting was first introduced to students as a completely new medium. Although western art, in this case, oil painting, was likely first encountered by Le Van Mien (1873–1943) in L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux – Arts de Paris, who returned to Hanoi in 1895, no record shows that he taught and trained craftsman in Bien Hoa or Gia Dinh this western medium. This medium was thoroughly unknown to the students, and Joseph Inguimberty though it would be hard to assimilate the oil painting techniques to them. Artist like Tô Ngọc Vân was able to combine western aesthetic techniques like linear perspective, imitation of nature and modelling in the round into his own oriental traditions with oil medium. Stylized as the 'poetic reality' style, his works sets female ideals into a linear perspective in an enclosed space, juxtapositioned with flat coloured area, his works emulates with the tendency idealization imagery.
En Plein Air Similarly, en plein air was another major practice instituted in EBAI's curriculum. Students were brought outdoor for field trips to develop their painting sense of the environment. As noted by art historian Nora Taylor, "[He … propped his easel under a tree by rice paddy, took off his shirt and proceeded to sketch farmers planting their rice seedlings. Needless to say he earned quite a few giggles and embarrassed glances from his subjects.' Nobody took off their shirts in public, not even the farmers in the fields. The French did and so did Tô Ngọc Vân." This example quoted by Taylor, argues that the tendency of idealization, we see in Tô Ngọc Vân's painting reflects a distancing and detachment with the subject matter, a result of artist's attempt to emulate their French teachers inclusive of whatever they do. Other than oil medium and en plein air painting method, significant assimilation and adaption of local culture were encouraged by Victor Tardieu and his successor Joseph Imguimberty.
Lacquer painting
Joseph Imguimberty was fascinated by the lacquered cultural objects and architecture fixtures after visiting the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. He encouraged his students to start using lacquer as a fine art medium, and set up workshops in EBAI with old artisans, playing a renaissance role in Lacquer painting. "falling back on the past will be efficient only if it is used as a starting point for a new research, for an evolution in line with the contemporary eras; to summarise, the question is to evolve as contemporaries within an extensive of tradition." Victor Tardieu
Making lacquer painting takes several months, using resin from Son tree taken from the plantation from Sơn Mài region, numerous layers of application are applied to acquire the desired colour and effects. Most notable artist who excelled in this medium is Nguyễn Gia Trí. Although artists like Trần Quang Trân, Lê Phổ, Phạm Hầu, Nguyễn Khang and Nguyễn Văn Quế attempted lacquer painting, Nguyễn Gia Trí's achievement in lacquer painting is remarkable for his research on pigments and exploration of new lacquer colours. Nguyễn Gia Trí's aim " was to obtain the same level of painting as with the oil medium regarding perspective, modelling in the round, and infinite variation of colours".
Silk painting
Other artists like Nguyễn Phan Chánh, Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ, Trần Văn Cẩn, and Lê Văn Đệ, who were the first batch of students to be admitted in EBAI, are most notable for their silk painting.
Like lacquer painting, silk painting was much encouraged for exploration in the school. Different from similar practice of silk painting in China and Japan, an intensifying of cultural transfer was observed in Vietnamese silk painting, artists like Nguyễn Phan Chánh blended western composition principle with eastern tradition like calligraphy and brush paintings.
In 1931, Paris International Colonial Exhibition, Nguyễn Phan Chánh's work titled Children Playing a Game of Squares was well-received and this recognition firmly established the medium as a modern Vietnamese expression.
Between 1930 and 1936, Nguyễn Phan Chánh, Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ and Nguyễn Gia Trí, graduated from EBAI. Victor Tardieu died in 1937 and he was taken after by Evariste Jonchere. Tô Ngọc Vân begin teaching in EBAI in 1937. Artists like Bùi Xuân Phái and Nguyễn Tư Nghiêm who entered EBAI in 1941 was unable to complete the full five-year programme due to the 1945 revolution.
An Allied bombing raid of Hanoi that was intended for Japanese target destroyed part of the EBAI painting department in 1943, resulting the sculpture department to be moved to Sơn Tây; architecture and sculpture department to Dalat while applied arts went to Phủ Lý.
Indochina wars (1945–1975) The end of the Second World War marked the official close down of EBAI in 1945. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam reopened a fine arts school in Hanoi for a short period of time in September 1945 ruled by To Ngoc Van. However, artists were sympathetic of the Viet Minh and decided to leave Hanoi to join the resistance movement against French in the Hills of Tay Bac.
Artists in the North Notable group of artists in the North during the Cold War were Tô Ngọc Vân, Trần Văn Cẩn, Huỳnh Phương Đông, Phạm Thanh Tâm, Diệp Minh Tuyền, Hòang Trung. Another small number of artists from well-to-do backgrounds had the opportunity to go to France and make their careers there for the most part. Examples include Lê Thị Lựu, Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ, Lê Văn Đệ, Lê Bá Đảng and Phạm Tăng.