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The ugly duckling

Posted By: Thuy Vi
Posted Date: Nov 06, 2008 (08:24 PM)

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Local and foreign experts agree that Vietnamese artists and art lovers need to appreciate their own art if they want it to be noticed on the international scene.
Vietnamese art went unnoticed at an art fair in Singapore this month.
The three-day Art Singapore Fair, which began on October 10, displayed works from 110 galleries based in 16 countries and territories, including the US, France, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Three Vietnamese galleries sent work to the event - Mai and Ngan Pho (Thousands of Streets) from Hanoi and Zen from Ho Chi Minh City.
But they received the cold shoulder from visitors to the fair, which was crowded with pieces by more famous artists from around the world.
The Vietnamese works were given much less elaborate displays than those from South Korea, China and Indonesia. The auctions by the two auction houses Larasati and Borobudur placed little emphasis on the Southeast Asian nation.
Paintings by late Vietnamese master Le Pho were only bought for between US$7,460 and $33,108 while paintings by young Indonesian artists were bought for $115,294 and $122,000.
But buyers at the two auctions showed little interest in the paintings from other contemporary Vietnamese artists though they were offered for less than $6,000 each.
Le Pho (1907-2001), who lived in France from the late 30�s until his death, is one of Vietnam�s most prominent modern painters. His works have been exhibited and bought around the world.
His paintings are now on show at the Vietnam Fine Art Museum, the Paris Modern Museum, the Oklahoma Museum and at many other collections in the US.
Art critic Nguyen Hung told The Thao Van Hoa newspaper �Vietnam has no advertising mechanisms for artists,� he said.
�As a critic, I don�t praise Le Pho�s contribution to art,� Hung said. �His paintings sell better only because they are placed in well-managed commercial channels.�
The �art world�
Le Thai Son, who manages the Thai Son Fine Arts Gallery & Collection in Ho Chi Minh City, said US-based Wally Findlay Galleries International Inc. had been the only regular collector of Le Pho�s paintings since 1963.
He said the gallery had thousands of Pho�s works.
The gallery offers Pho access to auction houses such as Sotheby�s, Christie�s and ArtNet � where nearly 400 of Pho�s paintings have been advertised over the past several years � as well as a collection of international galleries like the Romanet in Paris, Florence Art in Italy and Ode To Art in Singapore.
When asked why Wally Findlay had chosen to take so many of Pho�s works, a representative from the group said that Pho was a leader of the first generation of modern Vietnamese fine artists but had yet to receive the attention he deserved.
This credit gap was all too visible at the Singapore auctions where Pho�s works could hardly compete with Southeast Asian contemporaries like Indonesians Affandi (1907-1990) and Hendra Gunawan (1918-1983), whose paintings were sold for between $130,000-300,000.
According to foreign collectors, Pho�s paintings could be sold for as much as $1 million if they become more popular on the domestic market.
Representatives from Sotheby�s and Christie�s said they hoped that Pho�s paintings could be sold to domestic buyers for as much as $500,000 by 2010.
But the prices of Vietnamese paintings have been dropping at Hong Kong and Singapore auction houses, said Son, just back from Art Singapore 2008.
Experts and foreign collectors have no confidence in Vietnamese paintings, he said.
The collectors are scared of Vietnamese fakes, said Vietnamese-French collector Gerard Chapuis at the Singapore fair.
Many foreign collectors and gallery owners say Vietnam has produced too many paintings on a limited range of topics.
Son said that Vietnamese artists had to produce better work, local collectors and galleries had to launch better advertising campaigns and art critics had to become more outspoken and brave if Vietnamese art ever wanted to be respected abroad.
Playing the game
Earlier this month, renowned artist Bui Thanh Phuong, the son of legendary painter Bui Xuan Phai, threatened to sue Sotheby�s for attempting to sell counterfeits of his father�s paintings.
Phuong alleged that four of five paintings auctioned by the British auction house in Hong Kong earlier this month were low-quality forgeries of Phai�s work.
Sotheby�s then cancelled the lot but Phuong has insisted he will pursue a case against Sotheby�s.
Phuong said this was not the first time Sotheby�s had sold fake Vietnamese paintings.
He said that the auction house sold th ree other fakes as Phai�s works on April 8.
The case emphasized how little Vietnamese artists know about the international auction world, said Phuong.
�If we knew how to play this game, perhaps there would be foreigners willing to pay extremely high prices for our major works,� he said.
Vietnamese experts, however, are not very optimistic about Phuong making much of an impact with his case.
Art critic Nguyen Do Bao said it was not the first time Vietnamese fake paintings had circulated on foreign markets. He said lawsuits were usually dead ends.
Artist Le Thiet Cuong said Sotheby�s could defend itself by saying it had made a mistake in evaluating the pictures but the guilt lay with the person provided the forgeries.
Another painter, who asked to go unnamed, said that Sotheby�s did not have to worry about loosing the case or its reputation because Vietnamese paintings were not sought after by collectors and art houses.
The auction house might not even bother to evaluate the authenticity of the Vietnamese works its sells, the painter said.
Vietnamese Fine Arts Association�s Head of Art Committee Le Huy Tiep said fake paintings were a plague in Vietnam and had damaged the reputation of Vietnamese art.
A Google search of tranh gia (fake paintings) results in at least 100 copy shops in Hanoi and 200 in HCMC that reproduce famous works of art on the cheap

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