Nguyen Van Binh

(Vietnamese, 1917-2004)

Going to the Field

Footnotes

Provenance
Apricot Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam
Acquired from the above by the mother of the present owner in 2009
Thence in the family by descent
Private collection, UK


Nguyen Van Binh is widely regarded as one of Vietnam's most exceptional lacquer masters, whose works are admired for their beauty, elegance, and sophistication.

Between 1938 and 1943, Nguyen Van Binh studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (EBAI) under the guidance of Joseph Inguimberty and Alix Aymé, who encouraged students to explore the artistic qualities of Vietnamese lacquer. Mastering its techniques, he employed it to record the historical events that defined his era.

During the First Indochina War (1946-1954), Nguyen Van Binh served as a military journalist and used his artistic skills to both document the dramatic scenes of the conflict and produce propaganda material. After the end of the war, he went on to pursue a career as a lecturer at the EBAI until his retirement in 1979, teaching multiple generations of Vietnamese artists during this period.

Throughout his life, Nguyen Van Binh persistently developed his own artistic style, which was shaped by his education at the EBAI and further influenced by modern art movements. He was particularly drawn to Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875) and to this artist's impact on both the development of landscape painting and the emergence of Impressionism — a movement which fascinated Nguyen Van Binh. Moreover, he was exposed to Soviet art and culture during his studies in Moscow between 1961 and 1963.

While Nguyen Van Binh incorporated other materials such as watercolour, ink, and silk into his artistic repertoire, he gained prominence primarily for his lacquer works. With this medium, he created realistic and expressive representations of landscapes and people, and often imbued them with patriotic or historical undertones. He applied multiple layers of lacquer, gold, silver, and other materials, thus creating a sense of depth, texture, and contrast in his works. He also experimented with various techniques of shading, polishing, and carving in order to enhance the effects of light and colour.