Lot 21: Nguyen Tu Nghiem (1919-2016) Thanh Giong on his horse

Nguyen Tu Nghiem (1919-2016)
Thanh Giong on his horse
1974

signed and dated 74
pastel on paper

32.5 by 30 cm.
12 6/8 by 11 6/8 in.
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The work is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity issued by Mai Gallery.

Provenance
Mai Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner between 1996-2000.
Private Collection, USA

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Nguyen Tu Nghiem is recognised as one of the four masters of Vietnamese modern painting (the other three are Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Sang, and Duong Bich Lien). Although he fought in the Resistance war, beginning in the 1950s, the focus of Nguyen Tu Nghiem's work gradually shifted from socialist state views. He was the first Vietnamese modern painter to experiment with village folk motifs through the lens of modernism, reappropriating artistic forms such as Đông Hồ, Hàng Trống, and Kim Hoàng painting. These traditional folk motifs were sensitive themes in Vietnam between 1945 and 1986 when villagers were discouraged from worshipping local spirits, deities, and heroes on the grounds that they were not deemed coherent with nation-building.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, these local motifs became popular as artists started to appreciate their visual and symbolic qualities and incorporate them into their work. While he was excluded from mainstream artistic circles at the time, Nghiem was ultimately vindicated when he was hailed by the art critics of the 1980s as a true 'Vietnamese Modernist' due to his creative use of these folk elements. From the 1980s to the 1990s, Nghiem was finally able to freely express himself, making hundreds of sketches based on the folk hero Thanh Giong before rendering them in lacquer. In 1990, he won a prize at the National Exhibition for his depiction of Giong and in his interview with Nora Taylor in 1994, Nghiem likened himself to Pablo Picasso, by pointing out how Picasso had similarly adapted traditional (African) art aesthetics into his work. Nghiem's work continues to inspire many later generations of artists who have followed in his footsteps by experimenting with semi-abstract forms derived from traditional Vietnamese elements.