Timeless Souls: Beyond the Voyage

Timeless Souls: Beyond the Voyage

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Opening: 11 July 2022, 04:30 pm – 07 pm
Exhibition: 12 – 14 July 2022, 11 am – 08 pm
Park Hyatt Saigon
2 Lam Son Square, Bến Nghé, D.1, HCMC
Registration link

From the organizer:

Sotheby’s is proud to spearhead a project that recognizes the importance of Vietnam as a wellspring of culture, history and art. Sotheby’s will be holding a non-selling exhibition in Vietnam, marking it a first for Sotheby’s and any international auction house. Curated by Sotheby’s and Ace Le, an independent researcher and writer on Vietnamese art, the exhibition titled Timeless Souls: Beyond the Voyage – Hồn Xưa Bến Lạ is dedicated to encourage dialogue and awareness about the category of Vietnamese art, colloquially known as “Indochine art”. Alongside the fast growing interest for Vietnamese art amongst institutions and the collecting community, Sotheby’s shares a commitment to seeing continued strength in the markets in Southeast Asia. This unique event will share Sotheby’s unique experience and expertise as an international auction house with new and established audiences in Vietnam.

Timeless Souls: Beyond the Voyage – Hồn Xưa Bến Lạ will feature the works of four great modern masters of the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine (Indochina School of Fine Arts): Le Thi Luu (1911 – 1988), Le Pho (1907 – 2001), Mai Trung Thu (1906 – 1980), and Vu Cao Dam (1908 – 2000). It will be one of the country’s largest publicly staged exhibitions dedicated to these artists, with more than 50 works on display spanning different periods and styles of each artist’s oeuvre. The famous quartet migrated to France in the 1930s – 1940s, and often channeled a sense of nostalgia for Vietnam in their art, which they continued to produce and develop in a new European context. From memory, the artists would include elements of Vietnamese life and culture within their subject matter. Depicting plants and landscapes, families and rituals, culture and architecture, Le Thi Luu, Le Pho, Mai Trung Thu and Vu Cao Dam achieved universally appealing visual styles that weaved intricate threads of their Vietnamese roots.

The word “Hồn” in Vietnamese signifies a person’s spirit, the sentiments of a culture or people, and the soul of a painting. The title of the exhibition thus celebrates the timeliness quality of the artists’ works that preserved the essence of the Vietnamese spirit despite their life-long voyages abroad. The result of their practice is a sublime harmony between traditional Vietnamese culture and values, with the innovations of Western aesthetics and post-impressionist movements.

Follow updates on event’s page.

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