KVT – ‘Money’ at Salon Natasha

Money, money, money…. and more delightful money

Money in all sorts of denominations and from many countries is artfully arranged on the walls at Salon Natasha, that delightful small gallery with its even more delightful bohemian atmosphere.
If you haven’t yet come across the bank notes minted by the late Vu Dan Tan then now’s the time to become acquainted. (Last year the gallery gave us a taste with a wall of New Zealand Dollars). At present they are extremely well priced but as circulation becomes more restricted in the future, prices will rise. One major Asian art Museum has seen the writing on the wall and purchased three of the largest pieces (featuring Venus and self portraits).

Click on the image above for a larger version.

The hand coloured lithographs are each different and unique. Every note in every series is numbered with the artist’s birthdate (3/10/46)….with the numbers in several sequences.
To have a favourite series is difficult.

The Euro Beauties in pastel tones (12 in the series) are immediately attractive featuring Vu Dan Tan’s distinctive drawing style and each beauty is named after a female who features in Greek mythology or European literature. The odd one out is Monica Lewinsky, whose Presidential indiscretion featured when the notes were minted and who, after all, has a Polish name.

The Hong Kong dollars (series of 15) all feature Charlie Chaplin and the date 1897 to 1997- the latter being the date the Brits handed the colony back to China. The artist used Chaplin in this and the American Dollars series (12 pieces) because they were conceived when his daughter was of an impressionable age. He wanted to shield her from unnecessary manufactured violence so he bought all the relevant Chaplin movies and enjoyed them with her.

The least expensive series is the currencies of different countries (20 pieces) and these are all delightfully different and, like the other series, very humorous.

Two of my favorites are Old Money (x 2) in the artist’s trademark cigarette sellers’ boxes and Money From Amadeus (x 6) which are expensive but gorgeous.

Some of the work on display is to titillate you (and certainly does) and will be kept in the Gallery’s collection. The nudes on newspaper, ‘Beauty and News’ are well worth seeing and the 29 pieces from ‘Beauty Will Save the World’ after a quote from Dostoyevsky would be perfect in a museum collection, as would the 3-piece ‘Calendars for Millionaires’ which have each month cunningly named after differing currencies.

Apparently Vu Dan Tan’s original concept was to have all of the series presented as calendars but as so often happens when a very creative mind and its creative fingers run around in ever increasing, creative tangents, ideas and concepts multiply and play around on top of each other…and in his case I’m always glad that this was always the case.

It’s a very exciting exhibition of works that represent one genre in this important artist’s prodigious body of work. Vu Dan Tan is represented in the collections of several major museums and enough informed collectors throughout the world have examples of his work that a retrospective in his honor could be arranged and should be.

Get a look at, or your hands on, the very good catalogue.

If you have a certain sense of humor you’ll be able to spend a lot of time figuring out a lot of the quirky symbolism and if you’re stuck try to get Natalia, the gallery owner and wife of the deceased artist, to explain some to you.

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.