The Force of Art - A Life For Painting: Biography of a Vietnamese Artist: VAN DEN 1919-1988

By Juhani Murros

In the early 1960s, Van Den reached the pinnacle of his career and was regarded as South Vietnam’s premier artist. His path to success had been long and tortuous. He was born in 1919 in the French colonial time and left his humble village home in the Mekong Delta at an early age to attend a boarding school. Eking out a living as a physical education teacher, with a devouring passion for painting and confident about his talent, he ventured to go to Paris and show his works to the examination board of the city’s world-famous École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He was admitted, at the age of 30, to pursue his only formal art studies. After his highly acclaimed debut exhibition in Paris in 1952, he returned to Saigon and struggled hard before gaining recognition for his novel aesthetic. His success came in the shadow of the Vietnam War, which started massively escalating, shattering his world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jun 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781788783781

Juhani Murros

Juhani Murros (b. 1945) is a consultant physician in internal medicine and infectious diseases. Holding the Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the University of London, he worked for a quarter-century in tropical countries. His love for the arts and curiosity about life in all its aspects were enkindled in his childhood home’s vast library, where he spent the long and dark winter months of his native Finland. Visit his website: juhanimurros.ampbk.com

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VĂN ĐEN

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About the Author

Juhani Murros (b. 1945) is a consultant physician in internal medicine and infectious diseases. Holding the Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the University of London, he worked for a quarter-century in tropical countries. His love for the arts and curiosity about life in all its aspects were enkindled in his childhood home’s vast library, where he spent the long and dark winter months of his native Finland.

Visit his website: juhanimurros.ampbk.com

Copyright Information ©

Juhani Murros 2023

The right of Juhani Murros to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of the author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528903370 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528903387 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781788783781 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

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E14 5AA

20231002

I paint to capture the invisible, to communicate thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Preface

I was familiar with Vietnam’s political history but totally ignorant about its rich cultural heritage, although I grew up immersed in the arts, fascinated with life stories of great painters, musicians, and writers, and had a habit of visiting art galleries and museums wherever my travels and work took me. When my employer, the International Organization for Migration, transferred me in 1990 to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, I did not expect that I would experience an artistic revelation and make an engrossing discovery.

The reform Doi Moi, the liberalization of Vietnam’s centrally-planned economy in 1986, had released the fetters on private entrepreneurship and opened the floodgates of creativity. Newly opened galleries in Ho Chi Minh City were brimming with works of young artists who had thrown off the yoke of Socialist Realism. Amidst an exuberant display of their bold and inventive forays into different spheres of modern art, a small still life in an out-of-the-way side street gallery attracted my interest. It was an unpretentious oil painting, yet its dark mysterious colors and the emotional tension of its disciplined composition set it apart. That was my first contact with Van Den’s art. The gallerist told me that the artist’s full name was Duong Van Den, but he had always signed himself Van Den. The painting was not dated; he had regarded his art as timeless. What I then heard heightened my interest even more. He had been the leading artist in the former Republic of (South) Vietnam and the favorite artist of Saigon’s American community during the Vietnam War. After the war, isolated from the outside world in the new political environment of the reunified country, he had gone through professionally distressing times and suffered harrowing personal tragedies.

I started searching out his paintings and found a few in galleries and private homes, but they were mostly in very bad condition, ruined by years of neglect in Ho Chi Minh City’s pervasive humidity. While continuing my search, I was guided to Van Den’s house in Chinatown. The house sheltered a treasure trove of masterpieces stowed away in the loft for safekeeping. I made a foolhardy decision to rescue this forgotten artist from oblivion and tell his story, not foreseeing how arduous and long my journey in documenting his life and art would be.

I am indebted to many people for their enthusiastic participation in my project. Mme. Duong Chi Lan and Mr. Duong Minh Hieu, Van Den’s daughter and son, granted me full access to their father’s biographical material and helped me to get in contact with collectors of his paintings. Artist Hoang Phuc Ke, Van Den’s close friend who had emigrated to the United States with a big bundle of Van Den’s canvases, made a crucial contribution to the pictures. Dr. John LeFevre, Mr. Louis Nathan, and Mr. H. Rogers from the United States, Mr. Alun Tseng from Taiwan, Dr. Suleiman from Malaysia, and Dr. Stein Bastianssen from Norway contributed important pictures which filled gaps in Van Den’s life story. Artist Nguyen Thach, Van Den’s devoted disciple, provided me with enthralling vignettes about his mentor’s private life. Artist Lai Anh Viet and Van Den’s two former students, artist Uyen Huy, Dean of the Department of Painting of the University of Fine Arts of Ho Chi Minh City, and artist Dang Thi Duong, Professor in the Department of Painting, were my guides in Ho Chi Minh City’s artistic circles and introduced me to Vietnamese painting. Mme. Bich Van helped in the translation of Vietnamese texts. Lastly, a wealth of beauty would have remained hidden without my housekeeper Mme. Ba’s tears, shed in squeezing liters of juice from raw onions. The juice was needed for