Lot 12: Nguyen Phuoc (b. 1943) Three Noble Ladies

Nguyen Phuoc (b. 1943)
Three Noble Ladies
1981

signed and dated 10/1981
oil on canvas

108 by 164 cm.
42 4/8 by 64 5/8 in.
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Provenance
Private Collection, Singapore

Literature
Hà, Thúc Cà̂n, and Hùng Đào, 100 Years Of Contemporary Paintings From Vietnam, Vietnam: Dong Son Editions, 1994, p.71.

阮福
三位貴婦
一九八一年作

簽名：Nguyenh.Phuoc 10/1981
油彩畫布

來源
新加坡私人收藏

出版
《100 Years Of Contemporary Paintings from Vietnam》, Hà, Thúc Cà̂n, and Hùng Đào, 東山出版社，越南，1994年，第71頁

Known for his dramatic and otherworldly depictions of figurative subjects, often exploring socio-political commentaries of the contemporary world, Nguyen Phuoc does not fail to deliver suspense and mystery in this current work, Three Noble Ladies. Three women—perhaps actresses, with white painted faces and dressed in fine robes of vermillion and deep Prussian blue—are huddled together with a sense of anticipation as they observe someone or something that remains beyond the frame of the painting. The painting's composition is unusually structured, with the right side of the work filled with the three figures in front of a theatrical red curtain, contrasting with the left side that is surprisingly empty. Yet, this charged absence fills the emptiness of the space with its mystery.

Born in 1943, Nguyen Phuoc started painting from a young age and went on to study at the Gia Dinh National School of Fine Arts. He began exhibiting his work fairly early on with his first significant group show in 1962 for the First International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Saigon, Vietnam. He was a member of the Vietnamese Young Artists Association (VYAA), one of the most influential modern art groups to come out of the Vietnamese Art Scene in the mid-20th century and exhibited in four of their group shows between 1966 and 1974. He took part in the 1965 Paris Biennale and went on the exhibit in the first Indian Triennale in 1968. He has also participated in important exhibitions worldwide, including at the Singapore National Museum and the Whitney Centre, USA. Nguyen Phuoc left Vietnam in 1994, emigrating to the United States, where he continues to work and exhibit.