Dung vietnamese painter

Dung was born in Hanoi in 1959. He graduated from Hanoi College of Industrial Fine Arts in 1984. From 1989 until 1992 he was an official painter at the Vietnam Stamp Company, where he could exercise his talent for colour and precision. Working now as an independent artist, he has taken part in several exhibitions in Vietnam, including solo exhibitions in Ho Chi Minh City in 2004 and 2005. His delicate sense of light and shadow makes him one of the few modern exponents of the traditional Vermeer/Ingres spiritual movement. His works can now be found in many private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Doan vietnamese painter

Contemporary Asian Art artists

All the artists presented by Contemporary Asian Art have something unique to offer. Often non-Western artists are pigeon-holed as traditional or ‘naïve’, using ago old techniques that are quaint, but have hardly evolved artistically. Some traditional regional art is therefore decorative, but lacks depth, subtlety and artistic sophistication. Vietnam's French legacy however, combined with local techniques, has created a uniquely productive environment, that fuses the traditional with the modern and the Asian with the European.

As can be found in the selection of artists and works, there is a wide range of styles and techniques in modern Vietnamese painting. Some artists remain traditional craftsmen dealing with familiar subjects, although depicted with an extraordinary technical precision. Others show evidence of impressionist or expressionist inspiration. In each case the art is accessible to Western tastes and traditions, while remaining anchored in the East. This is the key to the magic and inspiration of the best of modern Vietnamese art.



Doan was born in Hanoi in 1937. He graduated from the "Ecole des Beaux Arts de Hanoi" in 1961. Doan then spent the next thirty years of his life teaching at various art institutes. But it was not until the 1990's that the artistic revival in Vietnam finally propelled him to the forefront of the milieu. He is now the leader of the new generation that has taken to more creative and vivid forms and colours. While he has become the undisputed master of lacquer works, he has been able to harness his skills to a deep creativity and sensitivity, which can also be felt in his strong and brilliant oil paintings. His works can be found in many private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia.

gallery of fine arts, asian paintings by south east asian artists, indonesian painter, vietnamese painter, chinese painter

Mai, Trung Thu vietnamese painter

Mai, Trung Thu 1906-1980

Trung Thu Mai was born in Kien An, Vietnam. He was among the first class at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine. He studied under Victor Tardieu with fellow Vietnamese painters Pho Le and Vu Cao Dam. He went on to teach at the Hue before heading to Paris to work. His work was exhibited at the International Exhibition in France in 1937. Trung Thu Mai was also a member of the Salon des Independants and the Salon d’Automne, Paris. Eventually, he moved to Macon, France where he continued to work. His paintings can be found decorating one of the chapels of the church of St. Pierre, there. In 1942 the governor of Algeria invited him to exhibit at the Galerie Ramanes, Algiers.

Bui, Xuan Phai, vietnamese painter

Bui, Xuan Phai 1920-1988

Born in Ha Dong, Xuan Phai Bui spent the majority of his life in Vietnam, rarely traveling. He studied at the Fine Arts College of Indochina. As a result of his participation in Anti-French resistance movements, and the avant-garde style he painted in, Bui was not able to exhibit his works until 1984. His work was not appreciated during his lifetime but has gained recognition in recent years. Xuan Phai Bui has become a well-recognized Vietnamese artist and collectors are increasingly seeking his work. His works can be found in the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of Vietnam.

Vietnamese painter Pho Le

Vietnamese contemporary art began a mere 75 years ago with a group of artists who were trained at the Indochina School of Fine Arts (Ecole des Baux Arts de l'Indochine) of Ha Noi. During the twenty years of its existence, French Instructors trained 128 artists to apply western techniques to traditional Vietnamese painting. Artists such as Bui Xuan Phai, Le Pho, and Mai Trung painted in a style that was highly influenced by Impressionism, Realism and Cubism. They portrayed the beauty of their native life and landscape through the lens of Western modernism. The subjects they depicted were romanticized and their works were infused with an ambiance of innocence and dream.

The Indochina School of Fine Arts closed its doors in 1945 when Viet Nam gained independence from France and reopened in 1946 as the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. Popular artistic trends in Western art, such as nude, abstraction and surrealism were banned or discouraged from view during this strict Socialist period in Vietnam, because they were seen as products of Western capitalism. Much of the art produced was instead, propagandistic in nature and centered on the theme of the worker-peasant-soldier in the context of socialist realism. In the early 1980's, the country began to move away from this 'nationalized' position for a broader, more liberal and individualistic approach to creative arts. The artists on this website represent the unique development that modern art in Vietnam has gone through.








Pho Le 1907-2001

Born in Vietnam, Pho Le was in the first class to graduate from the Ecole des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine, founded by Victor Tardieu. It was there he met Vu Cao Dam and Trung Thu Mai. He would later become Tardieu’s assistant.
Following his studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, Pho continued to travel across Europe. He went to Belgium, Holland and Italy. He taught at the Indochina Fine Arts School in the 1930’s. He traveled through China, learning classical Chinese painting techniques. He received a commission from the Imperial Palace of Hue. In 1937 Pho went to Paris to serve as the artistic director of the Indonesian section of the International Exhibition that year. He stayed and continued to work in Paris for the remainder of his life.

gallery of asian paintings by Vietnamese artist

Paintings of asian rural life

Some paintings depicting every day life in rural Asia, probably you might have encountered it during your travel to South east Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Kampuchea, Malaysia or Indonesia.

Food stalls in the market serving costumers

the bustle of river market found in many areas

slow wooden boat as a mean of transportation along the river
harvesting rice is a labour consuming activities, where friends and neighbors come with helping hand, harvest time is a happy time among the rural farmers in the agricultural area.

simple traditional village hut in the mountain
by unknown painter.
gallery of asian painting | oil paintings of asian rural life