Artistic Development
Socialist Realism and Internationalism (1946 to 1960)
Tran Lu Hau attended the School of Fine Arts in Hanoi, where he graduated in 1953. This school was formed by the Democratic Republic Vietnam after dismantling the French founded L’Ecole des Beaux Arts d’Indochine (EBAI), and created the new school under To Ngoc Van, who had studied at the EBAI, and became the first director, and had moved the school away from Hanoi to the hills of Viet Bac, the seat of the independence movement. Hau was one of 20 selected students to study under To Ngoc Van, in a class that later was known as the Resistance Class Painters.
This phase of Vietnamese art was characterized by strong nationalism and patriotism, where art was used for propaganda and “enhancement of military and civilian moral”. In line with this, Tran Luu Hau’s work was focused on patriotic portraits, political propaganda to raise troop’s morale and convince people to participate in the “revolution”.
In 1954, shortly after the foundation of North Vietnam, Hau was selected as one of the first Vietnamese Art Students to study at the Surikov School of Fine Arts in Moscow, which at that time was considered the best art education in the country. He “indulged in art”, in museums, theatres, ballet, music, even food. Hau stayed in Russia for more than 7 years, further refining “socialist realism”, which he already knew from his initial years of painting back in Vietnam.
Return to Hanoi as Master of Masters (1961 to 1989)
Returning from Moscow, Hau became a member of faculty of his Alma Mater, the Hanoi University of Fine Arts, by then the most prestigious art institution of North Vietnam, where he was teaching the “elite art students” of the North, and later also of the South after the end of the Vietnam war. Both, as a teacher for over 28 years, as well as member of the executive committee of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, Hau supported young and established Vietnamese artists to create, exhibit and successfully sell their works in Vietnam and abroad.
But even during his time as a teacher and administer, where he was focused on working as a “diligent officer”, Hau continued to paint, from landscapes in the midlands of Northern Vietnam, to theatre sceneries, always in his never ending pursuit to learn and develop.
“Glory Days of Creativity” (1990 to 2014)
After retirement, and after the State had started to liberalize the economy and the society in 1986, a movement called “Doi Moi” (“New Change”), artists were given more freedom to explore themes, techniques, expressions. Art galleries were started especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, also creating significant international attention, and resulted in an “explosive period of artistic creativity in the 1990s” (Pauline Foo).
In an interview with Pauline Foo, he said that after his retirement during the period of Doi Moi, “I worked like a maniac, all day and night, just drawing and painting, with terrible intensity, as if to make up for lost time.” And he continues: “It felt like I was being reborn, regaining my youth through drawing, broadening my scope and drilling deeper on each subject… I realized life is the greatest teacher to me.”
In this period, Hau avoids the themes of war, arguing that “I need to break away from them and explore everyday objects, unrelated to … fire, smoke, bombs, bullets, death and destruction”. But he stresses that without these personal war experiences, he would “not have the inspirations and emotions for his landscapes, still-life, seascapes, and …. Vietnamese women.”
Artwork and Style: Abstraction of Reality, Abstract Expressionism
Until his retirement in 1990, the State of Vietnam had left little room for creativity and experimentation with own or international styles and techniques. “Socialist Realism” was the predominant style. Hau had one advantage over his colleagues: he was exposed to international art during his time in Moscow in the 50ies and 60ies, where the so called “abstract expressionism”, for example represented by Hau’s idol, Willem de Kooning.
During this period after 1990, Hau has created his own style that is formed by his main use of acrylic paints and his “extreme passion for primitive colours: red, black, green, white, and yellow – the five elements of color ‘expression’ of Eastern culture… clearly visible in ancient Vietnamese folk paintings …”
To summarize: “In my paintings, one experiences the harmony of endless variations of color mixing … that is my artistic style.”
(Quotes from Tran Luu Hau biography by Pauline Foo, 2014, interview from February 2014, pages 8 to 19).
Contemporary Vietnamese Art at a Crossroad (Today)
For many observers, the contemporary art scene in Vietnam is at a crossroad. Pressure on artist to produce and create populist art to satisfy the market, or political pressure to appease the public seems to grow. In the eyes of Tran Luu Hau, “the quality of paintings tends to deteriorate, and there are only few artists who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of making real art…”
“Without freedom, there is no art”