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Lot Essay
VU CAO DAM
About 25 years ago during a long interview, when asked this question, "Who do you feel is the greatest Vietnamese painter of the 20th century?", the great master painter Le Pho answered me in a straight forward manner, without any hesitation "Vu Cao Dam". One could argue that being such an elegant man, Le Pho would value his strong friendship with Vu Cao Dam and name him first, but he was genuinely convinced in his opinion, that Vu Cao Dam was clearly the very best.
Vu Cao Dam actively participated in the Colonial Exhibition in Paris, 1931 and chose to settle there, never returning to his native Vietnam. But the man never considered his departure as an exile he had to suffer. On the contrary, he settled as a Vietnamese artist proud of his origins but nonetheless a universal artist in search of beauty and the eternal beyond all frontiers. Very early, in his first years of training in the Fine Art School of Hanoi where he studied from 1926-1931, he was immediately noticed as an outstanding artist both as sculptor and painter
Plaster, clay, bronze, stone were materials that were opportunities for him to express his incredible talent as a sculptor. At first, gouache and ink on silk were his favorite medium for his paintings but later, in the 1950s, such as Portrait of a Young Girl (Lot 343), he created a new medium by including, for example, some egg and tempera in his paints or favouring, from 1963 (following his contract with the American Gallery, Wally Findlay), oil on canvas works such as Maternité (Lot 314), Divinité (Lot 315), Les Pivoines (Lot 344), a larger Divinité (Lot 345) and Mother and Child, (Lot 346).
The series of works presented here is the illustration of the artist's talent. His canvas is a storytelling medium, and is an extraordinary display of talent.
Forced to leave Paris for health reasons, he settled in the South of France first in Béziers at the end of 1949, then in Vence in 1952. Yannick Vu-Jakober, the artist's daughter has kindly confirmed to us the date of Portrait of a Young Girl (Lot 343) and we know that the sitter then was Anna, the painter's niece. Vu Cao Dam was particularly faithful to his culture and favoured the representations of Vietnamese subjects, but much more than that, he had the will to catch eternity, and was undoubtedly successful.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art
About 25 years ago during a long interview, when asked this question, "Who do you feel is the greatest Vietnamese painter of the 20th century?", the great master painter Le Pho answered me in a straight forward manner, without any hesitation "Vu Cao Dam". One could argue that being such an elegant man, Le Pho would value his strong friendship with Vu Cao Dam and name him first, but he was genuinely convinced in his opinion, that Vu Cao Dam was clearly the very best.
Vu Cao Dam actively participated in the Colonial Exhibition in Paris, 1931 and chose to settle there, never returning to his native Vietnam. But the man never considered his departure as an exile he had to suffer. On the contrary, he settled as a Vietnamese artist proud of his origins but nonetheless a universal artist in search of beauty and the eternal beyond all frontiers. Very early, in his first years of training in the Fine Art School of Hanoi where he studied from 1926-1931, he was immediately noticed as an outstanding artist both as sculptor and painter
Plaster, clay, bronze, stone were materials that were opportunities for him to express his incredible talent as a sculptor. At first, gouache and ink on silk were his favorite medium for his paintings but later, in the 1950s, such as Portrait of a Young Girl (Lot 343), he created a new medium by including, for example, some egg and tempera in his paints or favouring, from 1963 (following his contract with the American Gallery, Wally Findlay), oil on canvas works such as Maternité (Lot 314), Divinité (Lot 315), Les Pivoines (Lot 344), a larger Divinité (Lot 345) and Mother and Child, (Lot 346).
The series of works presented here is the illustration of the artist's talent. His canvas is a storytelling medium, and is an extraordinary display of talent.
Forced to leave Paris for health reasons, he settled in the South of France first in Béziers at the end of 1949, then in Vence in 1952. Yannick Vu-Jakober, the artist's daughter has kindly confirmed to us the date of Portrait of a Young Girl (Lot 343) and we know that the sitter then was Anna, the painter's niece. Vu Cao Dam was particularly faithful to his culture and favoured the representations of Vietnamese subjects, but much more than that, he had the will to catch eternity, and was undoubtedly successful.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art