Vietnam Art Discussion

Vietnamese contemporary artist, Le Thanh Son is best known for his Asian- Le Thanh Son was born in Hanoi in 1962 and graduated from the Hanoi College of Drama and Cinematography in 1986.  

He prefers to fill the canvases with clear, bright colours  in an impressionistic style and an intimate atmosphere that can be found in villages around Hanoi. 

Thanh Son has participated in several shows in Vietnam and also in Singapore (1995), Hong Kong (1996, 1997), and Great Britain (2001).

1945 – 1954
Fighting for National Salvation (source: Quang Phong)

Awaken in the face of a new art, Vietnamese painters during 1925 – 1945 experimented and searched for a model in ancient or modern times, western or oriental. Beyond Classicism, they also explored the various Schools of European painting, fauvism, cubism, symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, futurism, abstractionism and many others. What was concluded was that those who could assimilate European painting and had the moral and material conditions would be capable of ensuring the continuation of the national art.

For a nation with a history that goes back thousands of years, Vietnamese contemporary art is relatively young. It began a mere 75 years ago with a group of artists who were trained at the Indochina School of Fine Arts (Ecole des Baux Arts de l'Indochine) of Ha Noi. With their acquired training from French instructors, the artists of this inceptive period re-discovered the beauty of the native landscape saw through a Western lens. They romanticized life and the people and painted these subjects in an ambiance of innocence and dream.