Le #muséeCernuschi met en lumière la manière dont l'estampage des inscriptions antiques révolutionna la calligraphie chinoise aux XVIIIe et XIXe s. Une exposition très didactique pour un sujet à mi-chemin entre l'art et l'archéologie. A voir !
A young Vietnamese woman with warm light-beige skin sits cross-legged, her long dark hair swept into a loose bun that crowns her head. She wears a flowing, pale blue-white áo dài whose wide sleeves open like wings. The silk-like garment is rendered in layered, textured strokes that catch light. Her oval face is calm, eyes softly downcast, lips a muted rose. Centered at her chest bloom strokes of coral-red and orange suggest clustered blossoms cradled by her hands while the surrounding field dissolves into deep and misty blues. Plant silhouettes and petal-like marks drift across the surface while lighter flecks resemble reflections on water. The paint is visibly scumbled, incised, and mottled so the woman seems to emerge from a lotus pond, held in a hush between breath and thought. Created during the artist’s mature oil-painting years in southern France, “Méditation” belongs to a group of contemplative female figures that merge Vietnamese spirituality with European modernist color and texture. Vũ Cao Đàm trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine and later settled near Vence, where a brighter, dream-like palette and dissolving backdrops entered his work. The blue, aqueous background and bouquet-like reds echo the serenity and life-force of the lotus (Buddhist shorthand for awakening) while the sitter’s cupped, aligned hands recall mudrā-like gestures of inward focus. The sculptor’s touch remains: palette-knife striations and incisions model the face and robe with tender restraint, a hallmark that links his early training to his later canvases. The hovering blossoms place “mind” at the heart, turning the body into a shrine of quiet illumination. Shown in the French retrospective dedicated to Lê Phô, Mai-Thu, and Vũ Cao Đàm, the painting embodies his lifelong synthesis of modern color harmonies and atmospheric backgrounds carrying Vietnamese values of contemplation, grace, and the endurance of cultural memory into a timeless present.
“Méditation (Meditation)” by Vũ Cao Đàm (Vietnamese-French) – Oil on canvas / c. 1960s–1970s – Musée Cernuschi (Paris, France) #WomenInArt #symbolism #art #artText #artwork #VũCaoĐàm #VuCaoDam #VietnameseArt #VietnameseArtist #BlueskyArt #arte #peinture #meditation #MuséeCernuschi #Modernism
Lê Phô was one of the first Vietnamese artists to graduate from the École des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine (Indochina School of Fine Arts) in Hanoi, and his work represents the ambitious artistic experiments of his generation. In Jeune fille à la rose (1942), Phô depicts a young woman with a serene expression, dressed in traditional attire, set against a backdrop of a stylized garden and buildings. It is a moody painting utilizing a muted color palette of grays, beiges, and greens. The brushstrokes are visible, giving the painting a textured quality that is soft and evocative. The Vietnamese woman is presented with soft and rounded features with her eyes almost closed looking down with a calm and peaceful expression. Her red lips stand out from the light beige-gray, loose-fitting traditional clothing that harmonizes well with the background subtly rendered, suggesting a courtyard, with light and shadow plus buildings at a distance used to create depth and a sense of space. The soft colors and brushstrokes create a sense of tranquility. Her pose is slightly turned towards her right, and her gaze is directed downward, creating a sense of introspection although she seems quite relaxed.
Jeune fille à la rose (Young girl with a rose) by Lê Phô (Vietnamese) - Pigment and Ink on silk / 1942 - Musée Cernuschi (Paris, France) #womeninart #art #lepho #artwork #vietnameseart #silkart #painting #womensart #MuséeCernuschi #LêPhô #vietnameseartist #fineart #paintingofawoman #vietnamese #rose
Born in 1906 in northern Vietnam, a French “colony” at the time, Mai Trung Thứ, or Mai Thứ, was was one of the graduates of the 1st (1930) class of the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine in Hanoi (Vietnam). Thừ was the son of a wealthy dignitary and was lucky not to be the oldest of his siblings, and, therefore, to be able to decide his destiny and his job. Five years after graduating, 1935, he completed this richly dressed bride using traditional and academic techniques. In the 3/4-length portrait with pistachio green background, a young Vietnamese woman stands expressionless staring straight ahead at the artist. Her hands a clasped together at her waist, but hidden from our view by the extremely long sleeves of a beautiful scarlet bridal Áo dài (tunic adorned with Vietnamese motifs and wide colorful stripes at the ends of each sleeve. A tiger orange colored blouse (possibly Áo bà ba) sits tight up to the neckline. The gown has an attached elegant patterned mint green stole with elaborate patterns and flowers in shades of red and blue. Small colored dangle earrings are the only jewelry seen; however, it is the azure blue conical khăn vành dây hat on her head that lets just a few strands of her black hair peek out. Thứ lived and worked mostly in France. His main subjects were women, children and daily life, incorporating some traditional Vietnamese conceptions about fine arts and folk arts. This is one of the few oil paintings completed by him as most of his art are silk paintings with gouache, by rubbing and colours applied as solids.
La Mariée (The Bride) by Mai Trung Thừ (Vietnamese) - Oil on canvas / 1935 - Musée Cernuschi (Paris, France) #womeninart #oilpainting #art #maithu #MuséeCernuschi #bride #artwork #MaiThừ #fineart #womensart #portraitofawoman #vietnameseart #MaiTrungThừ #Mariée #vietnamese #portrait #beauty #painting
