VŨ CAO ĐÀM (1908-2000), “DIVINITÉ”

Born in 1908 into a wealthy and intellectual family in Hà Nội, Vũ Cao Đàm entered Indochina Fine Arts College in 1926 at his father’s request, becoming one of the school’s first students, alongside such luminaries as Lê Phổ and Mai Trung Thứ. Thanks to a scholarship in 1931, he traveled to Paris, where he had the opportunity to exhibit his first works in the Colonial Exhibition of the same year. He then participated in other exhibitions, including the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d’Automne. His life in Paris was marked by many encounters in the artistic circles he belonged to. From these exchanges, his art – paintings and sculptures – transformed, absorbing what he discovered from colorism, impressionism and the avant-garde. In 1949, he moved to the South of France, near Saint-Paul de Vence, where he became neighbors with Morris Kestelman and Marc Chagall. His work continued to be successful, and the artist exhibited regularly internationally. Vũ Cao Đàm died in Nice in 2000. Vũ Cao Đàm was one of the most innovative artists of his generation, who mastered with talent and creativity the use of Vietnamese techniques and themes, skillfully combining them with Western influences, creating a new world of painting and truly marking the birth of Vietnamese modern art in the 20th century.

The work “Divinité” (Meditation), is part of a large series of works on the theme of the divine goddess, created by Vũ Cao Đàm between 1960 and 1980. This series of paintings, of different sizes, all depict goddesses, depicted from the front, with long dresses, their hands placed in different mudras, gestures that symbolize the divine manifestations in Buddhism. In our painting, which is large in size, the pattern stands out against a background treated with different shades of blue and dotted with white and red strokes reminiscent of cherry blossoms in bloom. The artist highlighted this image, in the center of the painting, through a contrast between the coolness of the blue and the warmth of the red-orange, one of the strongest contrasts in the palette.

VŨ CAO ĐÀM (1908-2000)
“Divinité”, 1969
Oil
Signed and dated in the lower left corner
61 × 50 cm