How did Vietnamese artists navigate the complex tides of social and political changes, and mark their own position in the art world as the “Others” during interwar Paris — which was celebrated as the “City of Lights,” yet also a stage for both colonial propaganda and a ground for anti-colonial resistance?
In the 1920s-1940s, despite the looming threats of war and the rise of fascism, Paris remained as the world capital of art. Artists from across the globe flocked into the city in search for recognition with breakthroughs in their careers. Vietnamese artists were no exception, as they also arrived in the city with hope and ambition. Today, romanticized Vietnamese scenes painted in silk or oil by artists trained from École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine (EBAI) are widely recognized among the Vietnamese public, especially as such works increasingly appear in international auction houses at record prices. Yet, their stories, artistic contributions and positions within the peak of the French colonial empire were often overlooked in the broader narrative of global art histories.
Works by notable Vietnamese artists, along other renowned Asian artists, are presented in “City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s” at National Gallery Singapore; this is the first major exhibition in Southeast Asia to feature Asian artists, their artistic contributions and influences as the center of focus within the vibrant Parisian art scene during the interwar period. Other than highlighting how artists navigated through the western art world while incorporating their own cultural identities into their art, the exhibition also offers a critical view towards Paris, not only as a vibrant hub of artistic innovation, but also the heart of the French colonial empire. In the case of Vietnamese artists, their arrival and exposure in France were the result of the colonial system and hierarchy, which shaped their experiences differently from their Japanese or Chinese counterparts at the time.
Installation view of “Theatre of the Colonies” in “City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s”, National Gallery Singapore.
The exhibition features works by the first Vietnamese artists who built their careers in Paris in the 1930s: Lê Phổ (1907–2001), Mai Trung Thứ (1906–1980) and Vũ Cao Đàm (1908–2000), alongside a rare work by Lê Thị Lựu (1911–1988). Together, they were regarded as the pioneers of Vietnamese modern art abroad. Also included are works by other EBAI graduates, such as Phạm Hậu (1905–1994), Nguyễn Phan Chánh (1892–1984), Tô Ngọc Vân (1906–1954), Lê Văn Đệ (1906–1966), etc. Importantly, the exhibition expands its narratives beyond well-known artists by featuring unnamed and uncredited Vietnamese artisans and lacquer workers in Paris by the 1930s, whose contributions have been overshadowed in art historical records.
Preface
The “Preface” of the exhibition opens with a series of self-portraits by Asian artists, including works by Mai Trung Thứ and Lê Phổ. Mai Trung Thứ lights a cigarette and gazes directly at the viewer, while Lê Phổ returns the same direct stare, though in a more formal manner. Albeit not a dominant genre in Vietnamese art at the time, self-portraiture offered a rare expression of self-awareness and artistic assertion. Rendered with watercolor on Asian silk and pencil sketches on paper, the two portraits employ fine brushwork in a western realist style. These mediums and techniques reflect the cultural hybridity shaped by the EBAI, which introduced French academic training while embracing Vietnamese local traditions. Although personal in appearance, these portraits subtly project the reality of colonial intervention, shaped by an institution under the French administration, and hint at the layered identities formed under the colonial system.
Left: Mai Trung Thứ. Autoportrait à la cigarette (Self Portrait with Cigarette), 1940. Colors on silk. Collection of Mai Lan Phuong.
Right: Lê Phổ. Sketch for a Self Portrait, 1938. Pencil on paper. Collection of Alain le Kim.
Workshop to the World
In Paris, the taste for Asian art was already well established before the 1920s. Lacquer was considered a luxurious material, prized for its refined surface despite its demanding and labor-intensive production process. The rise of Art Déco in the 1920s — a modern, streamlined and popular aesthetic in art and design — further fueled French interest in the “exotic” imagined visions of Asia. This appetite shaped the way Asian art was received, consumed, and displayed in the west. Lacquer work ‘Paysage tonkinois’ (Tonkinese Landscape, c. 1930) by Lê Phổ, which is rarely seen today as he is better known for his silk paintings; and ‘Family in a Forest’ (c. 1940) by Phạm Hậu, whose compositions often feature meticulously rendered details in gold leaf, reflect the mutual influence between the Art Déco movement in Paris and the emerging modern lacquer movement in Vietnam.
Left: Lê Phổ. Paysage tonkinois (Tonkinese Landscape), c. 1930. Lacquer on wood, 5 hinged panel screen; mounted on wooden panel with gold leaf design (likely later). Private American collection
Middle: Historical records of Vietnamese artisans who worked at Jean Dunand’s studio (up until 1930).
Right: Phạm Hậu. Family in a Forest, c. 1940. Lacquer on wood; 3 panels. Collection of Sunseal Asia Limited.
The exhibition also brings attention to uncredited Vietnamese artisans and lacquer workers living in Paris up until the 1930s, many of whom worked in the studio of renowned Art Deco designer Jean Dunand (1877–1942). During this time, several lacquerers were placed under surveillance due to suspected political activity. A list documenting these artisans — including their names, places of origin, and Parisian addresses — were found in the Archives nationales d’outre-mer (the French national archives concerning the colonies), which oversaw the migrants from French colonies, offering rare insight into the overlooked lives and labor behind the flourishing lacquer demand in Paris.
Jean Dunand. La forêt (Forest), 1930. Gold and silver lacquer and hinges; 12 panels, total 300 x 600 cm. Collection of Mobilier National. Image courtesy of Mobilier National; photo by Isabelle Bideau, GME-7196-000.
Theatre of the Colonies
“Theatre of the Colonies” further highlights Vietnamese artists’ first exposure to the art world during the 1931 International Colonial Exposition, where an enormous replica of Angkor Wat was constructed and pavilions were built for the French empire to showcase its achievements and benefits from the colonies at that time. Works by Vietnamese artists, mostly graduates from the EBAI, were exhibited at the pavilions.
Installation view of “Theatre of the Colonies” at “City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s”, National Gallery Singapore.
The works were highly regarded during the Colonial Exposition and other exhibitions in France at the time, and they were not painted in a deliberately “exotic” manner to serve the aesthetic demands for an “Asian” taste. Instead, we see refined depictions of daily life in earthy color tones, of women and villagers in their everyday activities through Nguyễn Phan Chánh’s works, which were rooted in his own rural upbringing, capturing the essence of the Vietnamese countryside. Meanwhile, Lê Phổ’s ‘L'Âge heureux’ (The Happy Age, 1930) suggests a nostalgia for a “golden age” of the Vietnamese past, showing children and women by the riverbank, most with their eyes cast downward, except for one young woman who stares directly at the viewer with an enigmatic gaze.
France was at the peak of its empire with colonial propaganda in the early 20th century, but it was also a ground for anti-colonial movements and revolutionaries. The exhibition includes materials from this resistance, such as cartoon sketches by Nguyễn Ái Quốc (Hồ Chí Minh), produced during his time working with the Parti communiste français (PCF, French Communist Party), which exposed the exploitative and oppressive realities of colonialism. These are shown alongside anti-colonial slogans, protest leaflets, and newspaper headlines, including one that reads: “Do not visit the Colonial Exposition.” According to the exhibition text, artists from the Surrealist group collaborated with the PCF to organize a counter-exhibition titled “The truth about the colonies,” although it attracted only around 4,000 visitors — a small number compared to the 8 million who attended the official Colonial Exposition.
Cartoon sketches, slogans, protest leaflets, and newspaper headlines by anti-colonial activists, including Nguyễn Ái Quốc (Hồ Chí Minh) at “City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s.”
Sites of Exhibition
“Sites of Exhibition” explores the career peaks by Asian artists, in which they were seeking critical exposure and career advancement. Through time, artists adapted into the mainstream culture and continued developing their distinctive styles, while navigating expectations from both institutions and the market. A highlight is Lê Văn Đệ’s ‘L'Intérieur familial au Tonkin’ (The Family Interior in Tonkin, 1933), a post-impressionist portrayal of a traditional Vietnamese household rendered in a dreamy yet rustic tone. The painting was a success and later acquired by the French state.
Vũ Cao Đàm’s double-sided painting: one side is the silk painting ‘The Mandarin’ (1946), a formal ancestral portrait of an unidentified scholar; on the reverse, the gouache-on-paper painting ‘A Study of Two Young Women’ (1946) with contrasting image. This reveals his working process of reusing a previous sketch on paper for backing support of the silk painting.
Also on view are Lê Phổ’s luminous watercolor-on-silk paintings, including ‘Harmony in Green: The Two Sisters’ (1938). Compared to earlier works from the 1931 Colonial Exposition, these later pieces still depict daily life but carry a more romanticized tone, featuring idealized images of Vietnam through the main subjects of women and flowers. While it's difficult to confirm whether this shift was deliberate, it prompts reflection on how these artists negotiated personal expression and cultural identity under the pressure of a western market drawn to the “exotic.”
Lê Phổ. Harmony in Green: The Two Sisters, 1938. Ink and gouache on silk, 54 x 45 cm. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. Image courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore.
Aftermaths
In the “Aftermaths” section, the timeline moves toward the end of World War II and beyond, as France grappled with the trauma of war while anti-colonial and independence movements were sweeping across the world. Mai Trung Thứ’s film Documentaire sur la Conférence de Fontainebleau (Documentary of the Fontainebleau Conference, 1946), which documents Hồ Chí Minh’s visit to France that year when came to support the Vietnamese delegation negotiating for independence, prior to the outbreak of the First Indochina War. During his visit, Hồ Chí Minh met with many Vietnamese emigrants, including artists, some of whom were later viewed with suspicion because of their association with him.
Amidst an exhibition largely centered on works from the 1920s to 1940s, two contemporary pieces by Thảo Nguyên Phan engage in a quiet dialogue with the past. ‘Magical Bows (Lacquered Time),’ made in 2019, appears throughout the galleries, paying homage to the Vietnamese workers brought to France during World War I to lacquer airplane propellers for combat. Her other video work, ‘Reincarnations of Shadows (moving-image-poem),’ created in 2023 and still ongoing, is placed at the conclusion of the exhibition. It features Vietnamese sculptor Điềm Phùng Thị (1920–2002), who migrated to France in 1948 and later built her artistic career in the 1960s. The piece reflects on the migrant experience — not only the anxiety of arrival, but also, as the exhibition text notes, “the agonising complexity of return.”
After 1945, artists continued to migrate to Paris, though the city no longer held the same prestige it once did. For many Vietnamese and other Asian artists who remained, life was marked by displacement; caught between a distant homeland they could not easily return to and an environment where they faced marginalization and financial hardship. Being the “Others” in the so-called glamorous “City of Lights” came at the cost of uncertainty: a shifting sense of identity and belonging amid changing social and political tides. Yet their efforts and artistic contributions left a lasting imprint on the Parisian art scene and continue to shape a more interconnected global art history.
Photos courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.
“City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s” is now on view until August 17, 2025 at Level 3, City Hall Wing of National Gallery Singapore. More information on the exhibition and admission can be found on this website.
