Roaring 90's: The Rise of Contemporary Vietnamese Art

Village Folklore & Mythology

In the 1990's Vietnamese contemporary art proliferated rapidly.  Although influenced by the outside world, many young artists felt it important to maintain their cultural identity. Well respected among the younger crowd, senior artist Nghiem was one of the first to look back to ancient traditions and village folklore as inspirations.  His courage to innovate and respect for the past helped give balance to the younger artists as they were thrust into the limelight.

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Nguyen Tu Nghiem (1922-)

The Dragon's Realm, 1994

gouache on rice paper, 21" x 30"

Amit May Collection

 

 

 

Dang Xuan Hoa is one of the first new generation artists to gain international recognition in the early 1990's.  Encouraged by the preceding generation like Nghiem (above), Hoa works to express his own unique Vietnamese sensibility.  "I paint not what I see, but what lies beneath  what I see."   His works juxtapose a myriad of objects found in a typical Vietnamese home: fruit bowls, oil lamps, ceramic vases, lotus leaves, and the ubiquitous house cat (strangely absent from this work.)  His flattened perspective and fauvist colors remind us of Matisse.

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Dang Xuan Hoa

Selections by Lamplight, 1992

oil on canvas, 30" x 36"

Amit May Collection

"Adam and Eve" is one of Hoa's more ambitious works.  While keeping intact his use of village objects such as lamps, fish, tea pots, etc., there is strong commentary on personal relationships in the work.   The couple does not appear happy; the man is rendered angry but weak compared to his female counterpart.  The gray and orange bars are left to the viewer's interpretation, as the artist had no set intention in their meaning.

Dang Xuan Hoa

Adam and Eve, 1994

gouache on paper, 29" x 42"

Amit May Collection

Motifs inspired by Buddhist philosophy and village folklore permeate Tiep's art.  His works are more akin to poetry than paintings, characterized by a gentle, luminous quality.  Childlike in purity, his subjects often seem suspended in space- more heavenly than earthy in their orientation.  "In my work, children are often accompanied by languid cats, hypnotized by the children's songs, dancing fish and meditating dogs, entranced by children's games."

Nguyen Quan Tiep

Rooster, 1992

gouache on paper, 16" x 20"

Amit May Collection

Tran Nhon

Happiness, 1994

acrylic on paper, 10" x 15"

Amit May Collection

Exhibit Continues

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