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Famille (Family)
Details
VU CAO DAM (1908-2000)
Famille (Family)
signed and dated 'vu cao dam 57' (lower right)
mixed media on panel
100.4 x 81 cm. (39 1⁄2 x 31 7⁄8 in.)
Painted in 1957
Famille (Family)
signed and dated 'vu cao dam 57' (lower right)
mixed media on panel
100.4 x 81 cm. (39 1⁄2 x 31 7⁄8 in.)
Painted in 1957
Provenance
Collection of Michel Vu, France
Literature
M. Vu (ed.), Vu Cao Dam Paroles élevées, Paris, 2025 (cover page)
Exhibited
Paris, Musée Cernuschi, Lê Phô, Mai-Thu, Vu Cao Dam Pionniers de l’art moderne vietnamien en France, October 2024 – May 2025 (illustrated, p. 120).
Further details
VU CAO DAM “FAMILLE,” (FAMILY), 1957
OR THE ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT OF A PEACEFUL IDENTITY
“Famille” is an exceptional painting, one of the most emblematic of Vu Cao Dam's work.
The painter himself loved it so much that he carefully chose the frame for it at Franco's in Nice (France) and kept it in his home throughout his life. When the Cernuschi Museum in Paris held an exhibition devoted to the “Pioneering Painters of Modern Vietnamese Art in France” in 2024-25, it was this painting that Michel Vu, the painter's son, chose to lend, as a tribute to his father. Michel also used it as the cover for his book (“Vu Cao Dam, Paroles rêvées,” 2025).
Recognition that has been validated by the best sources.
To better understand the work, we must consider the painter's situation in 1957: he had been living in France for 26 years, in Vence for four years (having previously lived in Paris, Vanves, and Béziers). He fervently believed that the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu three years earlier had secured the independence of Vietnam, a goal he had long pursued. His family was happy, and the city, teeming with brilliant artists, inspired him.
The time has come for him, not for appeasement (a horrible word for an artist) but for fulfillment.
As early as 1949, in Béziers, Vu Cao Dam began to distance himself from the hushed atmosphere and sober tones of the "Flemish Primitives" that had fascinated him. Mentally, he drew closer to the Italian Renaissance masters he had always admired. The midday sun in Béziers was already pushing him in that direction. His female figures became fuller, the tones of his palette became more vibrant, and, above all, the fluidity of the silk he used gradually evolved into a greater consistency of colour. Gradually, he moved away from Asian sensory perception, seeking to apprehend the subject in all its presence and searching for another spatiality.
The search for a more plastic, more powerful, more “strong” expression, according to his own expression, which he used like a mantra.
The trends of Béziers become statements in Vence.
Our majestic work bears witness to this.
Using thick paint and bold shapes, the artist 'sculpts' the three characters for us. Here, the faces have lost their 'snowy candour', an essential element of beauty for Nguyen Du in Kim Van Kieu (Chapter 1, Line 18) and admired by Vu Cao Dam. The three faces are dark. Their wide-set eyes, powerful bodies and darker, more tormented background celebrate the brushstrokes that created them.
This ongoing stylistic evolution was accompanied by an event: in 1956, the artist was haunted by the paintings of the Ajanta Caves following the publication by the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi of a book containing twenty large, magnificent illustrations. The book fascinated Vu Cao Dam, the scholar. The illustrations were reminiscent of the teachings of Victor Goloubew (1878–1945), who had visited the caves in 1910 and commented on them to his students, including Vu Cao Dam, at the Hanoi School of Fine Arts 30 years earlier.
The painter admired all forms of art and drew inspiration from them to fuel his talent. Here, it is an Asian influence that stimulates him. His early attraction to Khmer art is evident in a 1.6-metre-high Buddha head he created for the Cité Universitaire in Paris in 1935 and a Buddha bust kept at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, produced around 1934.
In “Famille,” Vu Cao Dam the sculptor guides the arm of Vu Cao Dam the painter.
The gestures of the two characters allude to Buddhism. The father's right hand is in the Tarjani Mudra, the gesture of inner clarity which powerfully guides consciousness, sharpens concentration and awakens courage, but his finger is pointing at himself, and his left hand is conveying simple physical comfort. Similarly, although the mother is standing in a quasi Lila asana, she is simply supporting herself with her right hand so that she can hold her child more securely. The child is snuggled up against her. The man is upright; the woman is slanted. The geometry here also has meaning. The Tonkinese clothing of the three figures is more suggestive than in earlier works. The three primary colours—red, yellow and blue—are prominent. White, representing light (all colours), is worn by the woman, while the man wears dark colours.
Later, during his time in Findlay, the artist embarked on a series of works entitled 'Divinities'. It is here that they find their graphic inspiration.
The almost hallucinatory representations of animals, as if buried in the dough, are something one can only guess at, not explain: a fox and a bird, a Chim chao mao do (the red cardinal) paragon of poets in Vietnam, at the top left; and a rabbit and a lynx at the bottom right.
Vu Cao Dam advocates allusion, not illusion, because “Famille” is the culmination of the spiritual journey of an artist who has chosen to draw from each of the cultures that have shaped him, without ever being moulded by them. He respects each culture, savouring their excellence and incorporating it into his work.
He shows us that, for the West and Asia, the separation is only geographical, and that their differences are merely enriching.
A verticality of the state of consciousness coupled with a horizontality of a level of consciousness.
“Famille” conveys the absolute need for a peaceful identity.
That of universality.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam.
OR THE ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT OF A PEACEFUL IDENTITY
“Famille” is an exceptional painting, one of the most emblematic of Vu Cao Dam's work.
The painter himself loved it so much that he carefully chose the frame for it at Franco's in Nice (France) and kept it in his home throughout his life. When the Cernuschi Museum in Paris held an exhibition devoted to the “Pioneering Painters of Modern Vietnamese Art in France” in 2024-25, it was this painting that Michel Vu, the painter's son, chose to lend, as a tribute to his father. Michel also used it as the cover for his book (“Vu Cao Dam, Paroles rêvées,” 2025).
Recognition that has been validated by the best sources.
To better understand the work, we must consider the painter's situation in 1957: he had been living in France for 26 years, in Vence for four years (having previously lived in Paris, Vanves, and Béziers). He fervently believed that the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu three years earlier had secured the independence of Vietnam, a goal he had long pursued. His family was happy, and the city, teeming with brilliant artists, inspired him.
The time has come for him, not for appeasement (a horrible word for an artist) but for fulfillment.
As early as 1949, in Béziers, Vu Cao Dam began to distance himself from the hushed atmosphere and sober tones of the "Flemish Primitives" that had fascinated him. Mentally, he drew closer to the Italian Renaissance masters he had always admired. The midday sun in Béziers was already pushing him in that direction. His female figures became fuller, the tones of his palette became more vibrant, and, above all, the fluidity of the silk he used gradually evolved into a greater consistency of colour. Gradually, he moved away from Asian sensory perception, seeking to apprehend the subject in all its presence and searching for another spatiality.
The search for a more plastic, more powerful, more “strong” expression, according to his own expression, which he used like a mantra.
The trends of Béziers become statements in Vence.
Our majestic work bears witness to this.
Using thick paint and bold shapes, the artist 'sculpts' the three characters for us. Here, the faces have lost their 'snowy candour', an essential element of beauty for Nguyen Du in Kim Van Kieu (Chapter 1, Line 18) and admired by Vu Cao Dam. The three faces are dark. Their wide-set eyes, powerful bodies and darker, more tormented background celebrate the brushstrokes that created them.
This ongoing stylistic evolution was accompanied by an event: in 1956, the artist was haunted by the paintings of the Ajanta Caves following the publication by the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi of a book containing twenty large, magnificent illustrations. The book fascinated Vu Cao Dam, the scholar. The illustrations were reminiscent of the teachings of Victor Goloubew (1878–1945), who had visited the caves in 1910 and commented on them to his students, including Vu Cao Dam, at the Hanoi School of Fine Arts 30 years earlier.
The painter admired all forms of art and drew inspiration from them to fuel his talent. Here, it is an Asian influence that stimulates him. His early attraction to Khmer art is evident in a 1.6-metre-high Buddha head he created for the Cité Universitaire in Paris in 1935 and a Buddha bust kept at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, produced around 1934.
In “Famille,” Vu Cao Dam the sculptor guides the arm of Vu Cao Dam the painter.
The gestures of the two characters allude to Buddhism. The father's right hand is in the Tarjani Mudra, the gesture of inner clarity which powerfully guides consciousness, sharpens concentration and awakens courage, but his finger is pointing at himself, and his left hand is conveying simple physical comfort. Similarly, although the mother is standing in a quasi Lila asana, she is simply supporting herself with her right hand so that she can hold her child more securely. The child is snuggled up against her. The man is upright; the woman is slanted. The geometry here also has meaning. The Tonkinese clothing of the three figures is more suggestive than in earlier works. The three primary colours—red, yellow and blue—are prominent. White, representing light (all colours), is worn by the woman, while the man wears dark colours.
Later, during his time in Findlay, the artist embarked on a series of works entitled 'Divinities'. It is here that they find their graphic inspiration.
The almost hallucinatory representations of animals, as if buried in the dough, are something one can only guess at, not explain: a fox and a bird, a Chim chao mao do (the red cardinal) paragon of poets in Vietnam, at the top left; and a rabbit and a lynx at the bottom right.
Vu Cao Dam advocates allusion, not illusion, because “Famille” is the culmination of the spiritual journey of an artist who has chosen to draw from each of the cultures that have shaped him, without ever being moulded by them. He respects each culture, savouring their excellence and incorporating it into his work.
He shows us that, for the West and Asia, the separation is only geographical, and that their differences are merely enriching.
A verticality of the state of consciousness coupled with a horizontality of a level of consciousness.
“Famille” conveys the absolute need for a peaceful identity.
That of universality.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam.
Brought to you by
Ziwei Yi
Specialist, Head of 20th Century Day Sale