KVT – Get it while the Going’s Good
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Bohemian memories
A great start to the weekend. At Salon Natasha a very intimate exhibition of the late Vu Dan Tan’s lithographs. The small size Travelling Circus series look gorgeous in their gilt frames against a mellow brick wall. They are symbolic of the artist’s famous cigarette box sculptures that were often displayed in ubiquitous, street stall cigarette display cases. The large Travelling Circus piece is arresting.
The New Zealand Dollar series are intricate, lots of fun and will really appeal to viewers familiar with Vu Dan Tan’s work in the mid to late nineties.
And what I wouldn’t do to get my hands on the Travelling Circus sculptural piece on top of the piano… and talking about the piano, if you’re lucky the record turn table may be spinning a 33 of the artist’s improvisations at the keyboard.
I am amazed that the prices are low… way too low for work from an internationally acclaimed artist. Naturally Vu Dan Tan’s work is going to increase in value very quickly due to its relative scarcity and if you are a serious collector and haven’t one or two of his works in your collection, these lithographs are a great way to start.
Some of the work on show is not for sale but, hopefully, will one day be included in a good art museum’s temperature controlled collection – along with a selection of his delicate assemblages. If a benefactor could purchase works and eventually have the foresight to donate them to a Vietnamese museum’s collection then at least some of this important artist’s pieces could remain in his home country. One of the great pities surrounding the Vietnamese art world is that too few of the great works of any contemporary artist will be in a properly curated National collection.
A retrospective of Vu Dan Tan’s prodigious output would be a must see and an art event of events. Let’s hope that we can see one in the not too distant future… in the meanwhile try to get one of the handsomely produced and inexpensive catalogues.
Top End Value
Another intimate little grouping of excellent work is a side salon at Art Vietnam. Here a member of the Lecht stable has installed samples of his new Schoolgirl series and of his previous series in wood, tin, and composite that reach way back to his appealing ants and grasshoppers that appeared in the early 2000’s.
Dinh Cong Dat has always been one of my favorite artists and his signature numerals 212 are cunningly added to his composite figures.
Here’s another renowned artist, middle aged (if we dare to call 43 middle aged in our era of perpetual youth) who is selling his excellent work far too cheaply.
It’s amazing that, in Hanoi, if you are even slightly aware and have a bit of an eye, you can pick up some very good pieces from very good artists for a song, particularly when you consider that the gallery involved is picking up its necessary commission cheque. And at a really high class, internationally reputed, necessarily – but not too – conservative, gallery like Art Vietnam, to be able to grab good art like Dinh Cong Dat’s at the prices listed is more than amazing and really good luck for a canny buyer.
And Dinh Cong Dat is GOOD.
Gloss and Glam and Well Heeled
Leaving Salon Natasha’s wonderfully bohemian aura field, before you head to Art Vietnam, you can progress down silk street (Hang Bong) and at 82 you’ll be at the modernistic and glossy new premises of the Ngan Pho gallery. This gallery is the place you go to salivate over luscious and high price canvases and a couple of the really marvellous composite sculptures of Dinh Quan. If I had $35,000 to throw around – after picking up a swag of Dinh Cong Dats and a Vu Dan Tan lithograph or three – I’d grab his larger than life nude, candy pink, pot bellied lady in button-up boots.
It’s a top end gallery with a welcoming feel even if you are a bit skint after last year’s financial crisis.
Not a reviewer, not a critic, “Kiếm Văn Tìm” is an interested, impartial and informed observer and connoisseur of the Hanoi art scene who offers highly opinionated remarks and is part of the long and venerable tradition of anonymous correspondents. Please add your thoughts in the comment field below. |
Dear KVT,
I talked a bit with the wife of the late owner and found out she does not plan to close salon Natasha any time soon. In fact, she is trying to sort out the art works done by Vu Dan Tan and will put them up in exhibitions and sale later.
A lot of artists must have called her to see what will become of Salon Natasha, so she is quite confused at the moment as to rent it out, sell it, run it as a private gallery, or a public one.
I am sure you have an opinion of your own as to preserve the gallery’s scent, please have a talk with her and see if we can save Hanoi’s first ever art studio.
Dear administrator, please put this comment through to KVT.
Best regards,