Fine Arts of Vietnam

I visited the Fine Arts Museum of Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, a collection that has been open to the public since 1991 and is housed in a beautiful pale-yellow French mansion, featuring tiled floors, stained glass windows and blue wrought-iron banisters and window bars. I started from the top of the building, where there is a collection of ceramics and sculpture. In the centre of the this floor are examples of Hindu, Buddhist and Cham temple statues in stone, and in adjoining rooms there are collections of ceramics, bronze castings and wood carvings.

Bien Hoa pottery

There are three principle schools of ceramic style that originate in South Vietnam. Cay Mai ceramics from the old city of Saigon are plain in style, in earthy brown and black shades. The exhibits in the museum were mostly household objects dating across a millennium, from the 1^st-3^rd, 11^th-12^th and 16^th centuries. There were also some high-grade ceramics on display from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. As urbanisation took hold of Saigon in the early twentieth century, ceramics production areas were pushed to the outskirts. As a consequence of this, the town of Lai Thieu in Binh Duong province became another significant centre of ceramics. Lai Thieu ceramics incorporate art into household items. Much of this was very garish, particularly the ugly fish-headed dragon vases. The most beautiful were the ceramics from Bien Hoa, where there is an important school of arts. The vases here combined Vietnamese and Chinese styles, in blue and turquoise colours, with attractive patterns or textures.

Unexpected sight from a window

A room contained bronze pieces from the 18^th-20^th centuries. A sign explained that religion and worship encouraged the development of many handicrafts, including bronze, which is used to create statues for worship and incense bowls and burners. Some of the incense burners were very bizarre- decorated with spiky dragon embellishments. Wood carvings from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries also featured in the museum, including folk sculptures for worship in homes or temples, decorative pieces and precious items such as jewellery boxes. Some were painted gold, others coated with black lacquer and embellished with mother-of-pearl. In this room were very distinctive-looking Khmer statues of Buddha, all gold, elaborately decorated with pointed-up corners at ears, shoulders and knees, and featuring the trademark ‘Khmer smile’.

The second and first floors contain collections of modern art, divided into pre- and post-1975, a year of ultimate significance, of course, as it marks the end of the war and the beginning of communist rule. I read that this art museum contains the country’s best collection, but it is hardly a world-class gallery. Highlights were the small room of Chinese ink paintings and some of the pre-1975 oil portraits and sceneries, which had unambiguous names such as ‘Sad Scene’ and ‘Naked Lady’. In other rooms were dramatic but mostly unaffecting scenes of war and even cartoonish propaganda posters portraying American soldiers as big oafs. Certainly, the photographs in the War Remnants Museum were more emotive and persuasive than the paintings on display here. I also saw ink and watercolour portraits, some amateur and others very good, some abstract art, which doesn’t interest me much, and plenty of lacquer engravings. There was also a collection of interesting sculptures, some of which reminded me of Otto Dix’s disturbing scenes from the First World War, distorted bodies with expressions of horror and pain.

Later in the day I met Jessica in the city as we had arranged to go out for tea. But firstly, she wanted to do some shopping. Next month she is taking me to a Scottish ball and told me that I will need an appropriate dress for dancing (I have to take classes in Scottish dancing in preparation for this ball, the first of which shall be tonight…). I was lucky to quickly find a lovely long black and grey dress, which swoops low at the sides and has a Middle Eastern-style look. Jessica bargained the shopkeeper down to her knees and bought it for a brutally cheap $35.

Today had been a gorgeously sunny day so far; happily the rainy season is slowly and reluctantly coming to an end. In the morning I have been swimming and in a few hours will be meeting Jessica in the city for another meal out, and to learn some Scottish dancing. I don’t know what to expect but I hope it will be fun!