HÀ NỘI — An art exhibition dedicated to Vietnamese silk paintings is scheduled to take place in Paris in September.

Organised by Việt Nam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Vietnamese Centre in France, the event will present about 50 artworks by Vietnamese contemporary artists.

A cultural activity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Việt Nam and France, the exhibition is to enhance the friendship and cultural and art cooperation between the two countries.

Moreover, the exhibition will be an opportunity for the Vietnamese community in France, and the local French people to learn more about Việt Nam and its art.

Visitors enjoy Vietnamese silk paintings at the Oakland Asian Cultural Centre in San Francisco in September 2017. — VNS Photo Trần Kim Thoa

In 2017, the culture ministry also organised a similar exhibition at the Oakland Asian Cultural Centre in San Francisco, US, introducing 40 paintings selected from the works of 29 well-known Vietnamese silk painters.

A silk painting was on display at the Oakland Asian Cultural Centre in San Francisco in September 2017. — Photo artexchange.com.vn/

Silk is a traditional material of the East and of Việt Nam in particular. When the Indochina College of Fine Arts (École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine) was founded in 1925, a generation of Vietnamese artists were influenced by European arts. It was not until the 1930s that Vietnamese silk paintings began to find their own style, gentle but profound.

In recent years, silk paintings by Vietnamese masters from the early generation of the Indochina School of Fine Arts were sold at record prices in international auctions.

The painting La famille dans le jardin (The Family in the Garden) by the late painter Lê Phổ (1907-2001) was sold for HK$18.6 million (US$2.37 million) at an auction in Hong Kong on April 5.

'La famille dans le jardin' (The Family in the Garden) by Lê Phổ. — Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s

In May 2021, his silk painting Jeune femme attachant son foulard (Young Lady Tying Her Scarf, 1938) was sold for $1.1 million at an auction by Christie’s Hong Kong.

Phổ is the first Vietnamese artist whose paintings were sold for more than one million dollars in public auctions.

Silk artworks by other celebrated painters Nguyễn Phan Chánh (1892-1984), Mai Trung Thứ (1906-1980), and Vũ Cao Đàm (1908-2000) are also favourite of international art collectors. — VNS