Vietnam, lacquer, silk and modernity

100 most famous Vietnamese painters

From Hàm Nghi, Nam Sơn, Nguyễn Phan Chânh, Tô Ngọc Vân, Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ, Vũ Cao Dàm and Nguyễn Gia Trí to Bùi Xuân Phâi, Nguyễn Tễ Nghiêm and the contemporary scene, here are 100 essential names.

Modern Vietnamese painting was born from an intense dialogue: literate tradition, lacquer, silk, Indochina School of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Saigon, war, diaspora and contemporary galleries. This selection provides a clear entry point into this rich and still too little-known history.

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Bùi Xuân Phái, figure majeure de la peinture vietnamienne

Before the grid

Vietnamese painting, between lacquer, silk and modernity

The modern history of Vietnamese painting is built around a double movement: preserving very strong local mediums, such as lacquer and silk, while absorbing academic teaching, perspective, portraiture and easel painting.

The masters of the Indochina School transformed this meeting into language: Nguyễn Phan Chânh for silk, Nguyễn Gia Trí for lacquer, Tô Ngọc Vân for the modern figure, Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ and Vũ Cao Àm for the Franco-Vietnamese diaspora. Later, Bùi Xuân Phái, Nguyễn Sáng, Nguyễn Tễ Nghiêm and Dương Bích Liên give Hanoi, memory and color a new intensity.

Note: to preserve 100 functional images, the selection brings together Vietnamese painters, lacquerers, engravers and visual artists whose work is directly linked to the painted or printed image.

Top 1 to 10

Pioneers, School of Indochina and great moderns

From Prince Hàm Nghi to the masters of silk, lacquer and the Indochina School, these first ten names lay the foundations of modern Vietnamese painting.

Ranks 11 to 20

Lacquer, Hanoi, war and national modernism

This section brings together artists who have given lacquer, portraiture, Hanoi scenes and national history lasting pictorial power.

Ranks 21 to 30

Diaspora, realism, abstraction and transitional generations

Artists here move from the diaspora to Saigon, from gallery painting to silent realism, with a strong presence from the post-war years.

Ranks 31 to 40

Lacquer, engraving and contemporary scene

Mediums are diversifying: lacquer, engraved wood, rural scenes, female portraits, landscapes and large gallery formats.

Ranks 41 to 50

Gallery painting and new icons

These artists extend Vietnamese art into the international market: landscapes, figures, lotuses, urban scenes and contemporary colors.

Ranks 51 to 60

Landscapes, portraits and current modernities

The recent scene shows a very lively painting, between countryside, cities, portraits, gardens and visual memories.

Ranks 61 to 70

Contemporary lacquerers and workshops

With Nguyen Art Gallery, lacquer and current workshops occupy an important place: lotus, landscapes, abstraction and memory.

Ranks 71 to 80

Lotus, landscapes and urban stories

These names give a broader vision of contemporary Vietnamese painting, from still life to streets, from portrait to abstraction.

Ranks 81 to 90

Silk, lacquer, oil and everyday subjects

Current Vietnamese painting remains very attached to everyday subjects: markets, bridges, landscapes, nudes, flowers and figures.

Ranks 91 to 100

To broaden the view

These latter artists complete the cartography and open up new gallery research around the material and composition.

Method

How this Top 100 was built

The front rows favor historical artists, big names from the Indochina School of Fine Arts, masters of lacquer, silk, Hanoi and the diaspora. The following ranks expand to the gallery scene, contemporary artists and current workshops.

The ranking is not a definitive hierarchy: it serves as a map to discover Vietnamese painting, with an image linked to each artist and a reading or profile link to continue exploring.

Where to start?

Three simple courses

For the foundations, start with Hàm Nghi, Lê Văn Miến, Nam Sơn, Nguyễn Phan Chânh, Tô Ngọc Vân and Nguyễn Gia Trí. For great Vietnamese modernity, continue with Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ, Vũ Cao Dàm, Lê Thị Lựu, Nguyễn Sâng, Bùi Xuân Phaïi, Nguyễn Tễ Nựiêm and Dương Bích Liên.

For the recent scene, explore Nguyễn Trung, DỗQuant Em, Dinh Q. Lê, Bội Trân, Thanh Chuong, Bui Huu Hung, Dao Hai Phong, then the artists of Nguyen Art Gallery around the lotus, the landscape, the street and contemporary lacquer.

A dense, delicate and international pictorial history

These 100 artists show the richness of Vietnamese art: a painting of memory, material and light, where lacquer and silk dialogue with oil, abstraction, portraiture and contemporary galleries.

From the old Hanoi of Bùi Xuân Phaïi to the silhouettes of Lê Phổ, from the lacquers of Nguyễn Gia Trí to current artists, Vietnam offers one of the most unique pictorial stories in Asia.

Review the beginning

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