Artists in the exhibition include Luu Cong Nhan, Pham Viet Song, Phung Pham, Dinh Thi Tham Poong, Vu Thu Hien, Nguyen Bao Toan, Phan Cam Thuong, Nguyen Quang Minh, Co Chu Pin, Vu Dinh Tuan.

Raquelle Azran is delighted to present Private Collection – a choice selection of works from three decades of collecting and curating Vietnamese fine art. The exhibition includes artwork installed in her Manhattan home, never before shown to the public and now, for the first time, viewable in person as well as on her website. The works were acquired directly from the artists.

“Celebrating over 100 gallery shows, museum exhibitions and art fairs - in the US, the UK, Europe and Asia - I am delighted to extend an invitation to share my private NYC collection. These works are fascinating, both visually and historically, and present a rich panoply of styles and mediums.”

LOCATION: Raquelle Azran Vietnamese Contemporary Fine Art, 320 E. 57th Street, New York, NY, USA

DATES: July 10 - August 23, 2021, by invitation only

Although Vietnamese contemporary fine art appeared on the international art scene a scant twenty years ago, it has attained extraordinary regional and international success. Brimming with vitality, Vietnamese artwork is a unique synthesis of Asian "seeking the spirit" motifs with Western artistic techniques. No longer constrained by colonialism, warfare or politics, Vietnamese artists are rediscovering the past and imbuing traditional values and motifs with the vitality and lush hues of current sensitivities. This new generation of artists is experimenting with the richly textured weaving of past and present, East and West, spiritual and mundane.

Vietnamese art is defined by its brimming vitality, lush colors and directness, as well as by its poetic, dreamlike meditativeness. Depending upon the personal message of the artist, the spectator is invited to share in nostalgic memories of the past or to enter a fantasy world of stylized imagery. Never confrontational or aggressive, Vietnamese art is a lyrical, serene and intriguing moment of beauty in time.

A personal note: I discovered Vietnamese fine art serendipitously. I left the US in the Sixties; my father was a US Army officer, I opposed the Vietnam war, and we did not coexist peacefully. My mother was French, so it was natural for me to travel to Paris and continue my studies there. In 1991 I visited Vietnam for the first time, and was amazed at the beauty and vibrancy of the people and the art. Hanoi’s art world, in the early Nineties, consisted of a handful of artists who were beginning to exhibit internationally, and many more who were as yet unknown. Hanoi University of Fine Arts, founded in 1925 by colleagues of Matisse as part of the French cultural colonization movement (Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine) was the leading force in art education, together with the Hanoi Academy of Industrial Fine Arts. A very few art galleries were open to the public, but the main body of artistic endeavor was held behind closed doors, in private homes and studios. I was fortunate to be admitted into this secluded world, as one of the few Westerners able to communicate with the artists in Vietnamese, and thus discovered the art scene that was just beginning to emerge in the period of 'doi moi' (the open-door policy that Vietnam had adopted as a way of opening up to the West).