Notes

LITERATURE K. Pho, ‘Jean-François Hubert’, Argument, July/August/September 2024 (illustrated, p. 40). EXHIBITED Paris, Christie's, The Phoenix Glue and the Broken Silk Thread - Important Vietnamese Artworks from the Melchior Dejouany Collection, 8 June - 13 June 2024 FURTHER DETAILS NGUYEN TRUNG, "ELEGANT LADIES", 2000, OR GRACE, A SUBTLE PLOY AGAINST DOGMATISM In the 1930s, two groups of Vietnamese emerged from Indochina School of Fine Arts: those who left to conquer the West, meaning France and more specifically Paris, and those who stayed ‘at home’. Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam, Mai Trung Thu and a few others took the first approach; Nguyen Phan Chanh and Nguyen Gia Tri, among many others, the second. These two important paths unwillingly overshadowed, another later trend: the ‘School of the South’, with its unmistakable characteristics. Nguyen Trung, born in 1940 in Soc Thang in the Mekong Delta, stands out as an exemplary representative. He graduated in 1962 from the Goa Dinh Fine Arts School. Founded in 1913, the school incorporated former members of the Fine Arts School of Indochina as teachers after partition in 1954. Of course, we need to differentiate politically between the period before and after 1975, and remember that after the country’s reunification, ‘socialist realism’ was imposed in the South, like a mantra. Art, as in the North, had to get closer to the people, bear witness to their daily realities, highlight their courage during the war and praise all the achievements of reconstruction. The artist had to be the servant of the socialist cause. The themes are men and women, heroes, soldiers, peasants, and ‘workers’. In 2000, Nguyen Trung, offers us these women who toy with us a little, in their multicolored ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress), rosy cheeks, loose hair, bare feet, sheltered from the sun—which could spoil their diaphanous complexion—by Champa trees (frangipani) whose fallen blossoms dot the scene. Three individualities... free... Contemporary Vietnam remains a country where allusion takes on its full meaning. Nguyen Trung’s masterpiece in lacquer—an art whose technical requirements are obviously far more demanding than those of oil on canvas, where he is much more prolific —subtly expresses his philosophy as an artist. Jean-François Hubert Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam Conditions of sale Brought to you by Ziwei Yi AVP, Specialist, Head of 20th Century Day Sale 20th/21st Century Art, Asia Pacific ZIWEIYI@CHRISTIES.COM +852 297 86732