Vietnamese Painting from 1925 to 1945 from a Cultural Perspective

To Ngoc Van, Tran Van Can, Nguyen Gia Tri… had modernity, however all of their paintings retained the spirit of tradition, which can be considered the common denominator of the artists of this period.

With such a brilliant art of painting, we must mention the preservation of the national cultural identity of Vietnamese artists at that time. Talking about cultural identity, we all understand that the national character of art is not limited to the subject of national realism but is most deeply expressed in the unique artistic thinking of the nation. Due to the characteristics of territory, economy, living conditions, language, mentality, people, etc., the artistic thinking style of each nation is different.

During the French colonial period, for students of the Indochina College of Fine Arts, a question arose: how to preserve and promote national identity in the context of contemporary society?

Here we see that the French opened the Indochina College of Fine Arts to spread Western painting, which was necessary. But when social needs required “ Promoting traditional fine arts combined with modern aesthetics” , Vietnamese painting in the early 20th century skillfully combined traditional plastic values with modern art science, closely linking social laws with natural laws, open and inclusive.

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Vietnamese artists were systematically trained, becoming the core team of visual artists of Vietnamese painting. At the same time, they were also the artists who brought the artistic voice of our nation to promote to the world since the first decades of the 20th century.

20. They use their creativity to create vivid images of nature and Vietnamese people. The sedimentation in the memory, the reality of life in the soul and emotions of each artist when recreated in the work, all have become simplified, profound, and flexible images in the overall structure of painting and sculpture on many materials.

The Indochina College of Fine Arts, like other cultural institutions, was established by the colonial government. Its administration was in French hands, the majority of its students were Vietnamese, and its purpose was

selfish (as Tardieu wrote in his application to open the school “under the influence of France and French thought” [74, p.91]). By training local artisans in fine arts, wealthy residents and French art lovers would be able to own original works of art to satisfy their tastes in “far-off” images of the Orient. This shows that from the beginning we have not received positive solutions to promote the talents of Vietnamese artists. Faced with the surprising ability of Vietnamese students in approaching new painting techniques, the French gradually trusted and expanded the scale and training direction of this school.

A school opened by the French who taught there was able to train a generation of Vietnamese artists who were capable of building national plastic arts for Vietnam. This miracle could only be accomplished by genuine artists with good will and professional consciousness.

Since ancient times, Vietnamese history has gone through many regimes, many different religions, many different ideologies, but Vietnamese fine arts have never submitted to any imposition, if not for humanity, for the good life of people. The clear expression of inner feelings is the result of art, the continuous accumulation of knowledge, of principled work and responsibility in that special work of each artist.

Tran Duy wrote: “Humans need art as a nutrient for the body, but that body has the resistance to survive, so it has the ability to eliminate what is unnecessary or harmful to its survival and growth...” [22, p. 57]. Therefore, in the process of learning and researching basic knowledge of European painting art, Vietnamese painters of the Indochina period still conveyed the national soul in each work from the way of observing the object, to expressing the psychological and emotional feelings, all purely of the Vietnamese people as if those things were deeply ingrained in their blood. In particular, even the characteristic visual language such as the colors in the paintings can be seen as if they were distilled from the colors of the nature of Vietnam.

Looking at the works of the artists of the Indochina College of Fine Arts as a whole, it is clear that there is no unified style or movement. A series of different approaches expressed by individual artists, this creates the necessary richness and diversity of a heritage. Another thing shows that although French painting was a great influence during this period. But it was not the only source of inspiration for Vietnamese artists to pursue and create in the extreme way of "teacher teaches, student listens". Therefore, the painting art of the period 1925 - 1945 carried a combined aesthetic value between the academic West and the mystical East.

The establishment of the Indochina College of Fine Arts, objectively, trained a team of skilled visual artists, mastering Western scientific art methods, but from the national blood and passion for creativity, it skillfully combined the two art streams of East and West, pushing Vietnamese fine arts to a new page, integrating with the world, adding to the treasure trove of Vietnamese fine arts, which is very diverse and rich in genres, materials and styles... This precious capital has been considered one of the valuable heritages of national culture.

National cultural identity in art in general and visual art in particular is the “soul”, the endogenous vitality, the “identity card” of each nation, to distinguish one nation from another. From there, it most fully expresses its presence in the process of exchange and integration. For that reason, in his own perception, the researcher considers the values of Vietnamese painting in the period 1925 - 1945 as one of the cultural heritages of the nation.

Vietnamese painting from 1925 to 1945 is a national cultural heritage, which, in addition to aesthetics, also shows us the customs, habits, landscapes, people, costumes, spirituality, and beliefs of Vietnamese people in the early 20th century. With hundreds of paintings left behind, Vietnamese painting from 1925 to 1945 is like a chronicle recording all aspects of Vietnamese life and culture. These paintings are on display at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, in domestic and international collections. This is a great cultural heritage in both quantity and value.

- Reflects the current state of contemporary Vietnamese society and reveals the artist's strong sense of national pride

In the past, during the feudal period of Vietnam, official fine arts and folk fine arts were two parallel fields that coexisted, because one side served the feudal mandarin class and the other side served the aesthetic needs of folk artists. The content of these two fine arts mainly reflected aspects of religion, royal life and rustic life, and the dreams of working people.

Religious and belief themes occupy an important position in the mainstream art scene, because they are often associated with architectural works of palaces, Buddhist pagodas and towers, and their content is decorative motifs that have entered into immutable formulas such as: "Four sacred animals, four noble ones", "Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle, Phoenix" or "Pine, bamboo, chrysanthemum, apricot" and themes in Buddhist scriptures.

Meanwhile, the flourishing of Vietnamese communal house art in the 16th and 17th centuries and the solidarity of the village community for generations have been the places that have most closely connected the creative passion of folk artists in the fine arts of folk paintings and sculptures. These art forms that appeared and infiltrated the village community expressed the desires and aspirations for happiness in couples, families, etc. However, these were only highly stylized images, not going into the description of all aspects of daily life, not having deep psychological aspects and being only the products of anonymous artists.

Fine arts in the period 1925 - 1945 through the paintings of artists of the Indochina College of Fine Arts had undergone great changes. The works of this period were highly realistic, all aspects of life became their creative subjects. This change marked a new form of thinking of the creators, from which they were associated with the title "Artist" or "Painter".

The content that artists mentioned in the period 1925 - 1945 was also directed towards the people and natural landscapes of Vietnam.

However, thanks to the expression on many new visual materials such as oil paint on canvas, watercolor, gouache on silk, on paper, modernized lacquer on cloth... the ability to expand the subject and expressive techniques has become much richer than the previous traditional fine arts. Artists found creative inspiration in the reality of life in the countryside, in the city, in family life... This is the fundamental innovation in modern Vietnamese painting from 1925 to 1945. Of course, at the beginning of this innovation, artists could not avoid certain limitations.

A realistic and romantic painting art was at its starting point, so painting had not yet fully expressed all aspects of the rich and diverse life in contemporary society. The content of the subject matter often stopped at a number of subjects and social activities in urban life. The most successful content can be said to be the beauty of women in family life. These are the gentle, graceful and discreet beauty of Vietnamese women such as the topics: Young girl with lilies, Young girl with hibiscus, Young girl with makeup, Young girl with aquarium ... almost all of them are beautiful women, women in the appearance of a lady, middle class, upper class in society.

There are some artists who focus on the people and activities in the countryside. But those beauties are also poeticized and romanticized in their works. A typical example is the artist Nguyen Phan Chanh, who is known as the artist of "rural beauties". In his paintings, the image of women appears with a beauty that is very warm and honest, but also cannot avoid the romantic, naive, and aesthetic features in leisurely activities, in moments of rest and play such as in the paintings: Baby feeding birds, Playing checkers, Moonlit moon, Back scrubbing or even in labor such as: Washing vegetables at the pond bridge, Going to the fields...

Although these village girl characters are not really real characters. But they are very close to the familiar features of rural life in the Northern Delta.

Also in the theme of women's beauty, we also see the appearance of some nude or semi-nude paintings (this is taboo in feudal culture), although at first they were not necessarily popular such as: Nude girl, Girl, Washing hair, Girl combing hair... Notably, artist Le Pho painted nude paintings very early, before 1930, his nude works were auctioned internationally.

When Catholicism entered Vietnam, the need to decorate churches arose. With lessons from Western paintings, especially those of the Renaissance, starting in 1940, there was a movement to create Catholic paintings in the Vietnamese style. Artists such as Nguyen Gia Tri, Nguyen Tien Chung, and Le Pho depicted the theme of Christmas with the image of the Virgin Mary on traditional materials such as lacquer and silk, but always with a view in Eastern aesthetic thinking.

The theme of landscape paintings during this period was also quite popular. Works such as Boat on the Perfume River by To Ngoc Van, Bamboo Grove; Hong Quang Wharf by Nguyen Gia Tri, Thay Pagoda Landscape by Hoang Tich Chu, Hue Citadel Gate; Village Gate by Nguyen Do Cung… followed the direction of praising the poetic and romantic beauty of the landscapes and famous places in each region of the country.

It is clear that the need to reflect society in Vietnamese Painting during the period 1925-1945 was very clear. Under the pen of the artists, the social life, people and natural landscape of Vietnam appeared very realistically.

In the early 20th century, the trend of Westernization appeared in Vietnam. New cities were born, factories and workshops sprung up, the bourgeoisie and the working class emerged. At the same time, urban life with high-rise buildings, cars and modern Western European fashions also developed. The life of farmers was extremely miserable because of agricultural stagnation and the double yoke of colonialism and feudalism.

The newly formed intellectual and bourgeois classes led to a new culture in the cities. In that complex social context, of course, there was an impact on

The artistic class, and the painters trained at the Indochina College of Fine Arts, are no exception.

Those who studied at the Indochina College of Fine Arts at that time were mostly children of intellectuals or wealthy families. However, what we see through the works of artists in the period 1925-1945 still directed art towards the life of their own people. Although the theme of farmers and the countryside of a purely agricultural nation was not the main theme of the paintings in this period. But a national undercurrent appeared and quietly flowed in the painting scene. On a new realistic and romantic style formed in this period, helping artists express the life of their people. We see a Vietnamese language in painting.

There is a certain distance between the citizen and the artist, but the artist still has the ability to defend the weak, to fight against the forces of evil in his own way through paintings in particular, and art in general. With the wide range of influence of the art of painting, it has impacted all other areas of life, in all things related to humans. Of course, this impact cannot be accidental but comes from the creativity of the artist with civic responsibility and national consciousness.

The birth of the FARTA group (Foyer de 1 Art Annamite), a professional organization of artists who desire freedom in artistic creation, is also a manifestation of national pride. Artist Tran Van Can, one of the founders of that organization, painted a large-scale lacquer painting, in the style of a screen, with the theme of Farewell to the Scholar on His Way to the Provincial Examination. The composition of the painting depicts the scene of villagers following the scholar on a white horse to the examination. The form is stylized in the folk style, expressed with traditional lacquer materials in brilliant and splendid red, then, gold, and silver. The painting depicts a bustling, jubilant farewell scene, filled with optimism and excitement about the studious spirit of traditional Vietnamese villages.

Studying and working to create art in the French colonial context easily fell within the general flow of "Art for art's sake", especially art

“Salon” aims to satisfy the artistic ego. Not a few Vietnamese artists from 1925 to 1945 were influenced by that flow. However, the majority of them gradually realized that the vivid reality of life, people and historical landscapes of the nation had an impact on changing the concepts and perceptions of an entire generation. Many art students, while still in school, went on field trips to the countryside, to ancient temples and pagodas to study, record and draw. Such trips had an impact on even French teachers like Inguiberty, causing him to join in many trips.

Talking about the civic responsibility of artists in the period 1925 - 1945, I am afraid that it is a bit forced to awaken. However, with the heart and talent of the artist in each individual, the artists, in addition to directly fighting through speech in the press, also truly reflected some of the melancholy beauty of the mood of the people living under the yoke of French colonial rule, even though those were artistic images under a view that was still somewhat dominated by romantic thinking. This generation of artists created an artistic style rich in qualities: realism, academicism, classicalism, metaphor, symbolism with many artistic personalities but rich in Vietnamese cultural identity. That was a clear expression of the national pride of the artists of that time.

A new artistic style was born, capable of dialogue with the public, a style that had a profound influence on the next generations. An artistic style that turned towards national reality, returned to national roots and captured the hidden current of national artistic traditions.

Thus, it can be seen that although the artists were trained in the colonial “Western schools”, most of them still maintained their sense of national pride. In their hearts, with the Vietnamese soul and character, they boldly used their art to speak out the voice of charity and humanity. Their creations had a personal style and crystallized the quintessence of humanistic values in the cultural heritage of the nation’s traditions.

Vietnamese Painting from 1925 to 1945 from a Cultural Perspective - 16

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