Dongsonian Art Exhibition

Opening: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 10 am
Exhibition: 26 Sep – 03 Oct 2011
Viet Art Centre

From Viet Art Centre:
On the occasion of the new academic year, the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts would like to introduce a special exhibition which presents all of the research findings into Đông Sơn fine arts made by the Centre for Southeast Asian Prehistory. This exhibition hopes to promote pride and love among students for the preservation of Vietnamese cultural heritage.

The Việt Nam University of Fine Arts last collaborated with the Centre for Southeast Asian Prehistory in 2006 for the exhibition “The Ancient Stone Site of Sapa in the Eye of Visual Arts”. We are very pleased to collaborate once again for another significant fine arts event.

Đông Sơn fine arts marked a high point for the prehistoric fine arts of Việt Nam and Southeast Asia. From the late 19th to early 20th centuries, Western scholars paid close attention to the artistic work of the ancient Đông Sơn people. But it was not until the establishment of the Việt Nam Institute of Archaeology (1968) that Đông Sơn fine arts was studied scientifically and systematically. It was studied as part of the research project “The Hùng Kings’ Foundation of the Country” for four years.

In 2003, the Việt Nam Institute of Fine Arts (directly under the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts) published Vietnamese Patterns from Prehistory to the First Half of Feudalism by Nguyễn Du Chi. Đông Sơn fine arts was systematically delineated in the second chapter of the book, Prehistoric Patterns. Also in 2003, the Centre for Southeast Asian Prehistory, under the management of Dr. Nguyễn Việt, conducted an intensive interdisciplinary, international research project about prehistoric fine arts in Việt Nam. The special issue “Research of Fine Arts” by the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts had the honor of publishing all the materials of this meticulous and important project.