An art history tour of HCMC

Today a small group of us did an art history tour of Ho Chi Minh City with Sophie our tour guide. Vietnam has been besieged by various countries in the last 100 years and has repelled them all. We looked at the French influence, the American war as its known here, not the Vietnam war and its effect on art and artists, the Dom Moi period the rebuilding of Vietnam and now contemporary times. It was so interesting.

A sponsored French artist came to Hanoi in 1921 and opened an art school. One of his students and then a teacher in the school was a chap called Duc Moi. During the late 1970’s Duc Minh relocated to HCMC because of his wife’s health and came to live around the corner from my TX campus. I’ve passed the house and the sign that says private art museum. Today I got the opportunity to go inside and view the art work. Duc Minh was instrumental in establishing artists in Vietnam.

Vietnamese propaganda art  was a big business during the war and we looked at examples in a private gallery and the Fine Art Museum..  We also looked at combat art, the artists who were at the front recording the battle scenes. The Americans of course had photography, the Nth Vietnamese artists. Coming through in the history side of the tour was the influence and foresight of Ho Chi Minh the leader. He was definitely an inspirational man who asked for a meeting with Western leaders after the Vietnamese repelled the French in 1954. The West turned him down, so he approached China and Russia and the rest is history. The Dom Moi period, the rebuilding of Vietnam, is where they actually opened the doors of Vietnam and allowed their people out and allowed people and tourists in which bought about a rise in artists.


We also looked at various mediums, lacquer art. silk canvas, oils, water colours, charcoal etc. Absolutely fantastic.

Today not only did I get to see some wonderful art, but I learned a lot about Vietnam and it's history.