Vietnamese contemporary artwork travels to UK
MAA visitors view the lacquer painting Giong by Vietnamese master painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem. — File Photo
HA NOI (VNS) – The lacquer painting Giong (St Giong) by Vietnamese master painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem is on display at Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).
A loan from the Viet Nam National Museum of Fine Arts (NMoFA), the painting is on display in the museum’s gallery alongside other great works of art from across the world.
According to the NMoFA director Phan Van Tien, the 20th-century painting by one of the most celebrated Vietnamese modern artists is a significant representative of Viet Nam’s lacquer painting in particular and of national painting in general.
Alongside the display, Dr Susan Bayly of the Division of Social Anthropology has presented a special lecture entitled “Legend and Inspiration: Vietnamese National Art in the Modern Age”.
A part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, the lecture explores ongoing changes in the visual culture of Viet Nam, and the trajectories of travel, entanglement and dialogue that have shaped Viet Nam’s arenas of creativity and revived spirituality.
The display of Giong, which is in celebration of 40 years of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and the UK, will be open to the public until Saturday. — VNS