Adam's FINE ASIAN ART 28th,29th,30th Preview June 2022

56 Vietnamese art is a rich, convoluted and empowering story reflecting the equally so history of the country itself. During the first half of the Twentieth century both art and society mutated at a fast pace. Materials, tech- niques and subjects evolved, acquiring new dimensions without disregarding the previous layers or preventing the next ones; time is a concept and art is everlasting. Lê Ph ổ (1907-2001) is undoubtedly one of the great names of modern art which sole evocation brings to mind both Vietnamese imperial society and French art scene. Raised in classic Sino- Vietnamese culture and trained in colonial establishments such as the École des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine, the young man eventually settles in France in 1937. This Dove painting is charac- teristic of the artist’s early productions. The material employed here, gouache and ink on silk has a long history in Eastern Asia, including Vietnam, where it was especially used for portrait and religious paintings. Lê Ph ổ depicts a bird in minute yet suggested details thanks to precise brushstrokes and subtle ink washes, playing with black and brown nuances. By the time the artist executes this painting he has already trav- eled through Europe and to China, feeding his soul with timeless references. One can see in Lê Ph ổ ’s descriptive sensibility as much Albrecht Dürer as Qian Xuan. The Washerwomen denotes a more acute sense of the line, colours being restrained to their black hair and to the white turban and the white cloths they wash. Both women are crouching on a pontoon above the river. They are figured in opposite positions, one facing us, one showing us her back. Is it a way for the painter to allude to the Renaissance paragone debate? To prove the superiority of painting over sculpture, artists from this period Lê Ph ổ was so passionate about would indeed de- pict characters from various angles in the same work. Lê Ph ổ goes farther with playfulness, exposing complemen- tary sensuality; loose hair or tied turban, form-fitted áo dài dress or bare chest. This humorous erotic aspect is expressed in a skilful and firm network of lines drawing the sinuosity of the fabric folds, the weaving of the bas- ket or the flowing strands of hair in a manner inherited from ancient Vietnamese printed images. The Bouquet of Flowers is instead a soft symphony of colours. This gouache on paper is a more intimate take of the lush still-lives Lê Ph ổ abundantly paints in the lat- er part of his career, as if bewitched by their beauty and forms. The lilies springing out of the vase seem to dance in the air, occupying the space with sensitivity and ease. AN INTRODUCTION ON VIETNAMESE ART An essay by Nicolas Henni-Trinh Duc Nicolas Henni-Trinh Duc is an art historian based in Paris who specializes in Vietnamese arts. He is a graduate of the University La Sorbonne and is currently writing his doctoral thesis on Vietnamese portraiture.