Danh họa Tô Ngọc Vân

Tô Ngọc Vân (1906-1954)
a.k.a Tô T

The painter, writer and revolutionary To Ngoc Vân was born in Hanoi in 1906. He was one of the first graduates of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam) in 1931. His art, which was both delicate and brilliantly colored, reflected the influence of French Post Impressionism, especially the work of Paul Gauguin. During the last decade of his life, as a revolutionary artist Vân dreamt “of building a Vietnamese art of national character.”

Tô Ngọc Vân was born into an impoverished Hanoi family in 1906. His mother was a marketplace seller and the family moved constantly. At the age of six he was left with a grandmother and aunt when his mother returned to the countryside. After years of scraping by as a studious schoolboy, he dropped out of high school (the Protectorate secondary School) in his third year to study art. As his friend Tran Vân Can later recalled: “Vân became acquainted with painting and was entirely attracted by it.”

After passing the necessary exams, Vân entered the École, where his dedication and talent soon made him stand out. A voracious student, he read every book, magazine or newspaper article about art that was available. He was interested in a wide range of art, from ancient Buddhist murals to French modernism. For his studio work, Vân studied silk painting, wood carving and fresco painting. After graduating with Honors, Vân traveled and painted in Cambodia, Thailand and South Vietnam. He also developed into an arts journalist, writing criticism for newspapers including Phong Hoa. He taught art at Phnom Penh High School from 1935 to 1939, and then returned to teach at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine until 1945. Vân then joined the resistance war against France.

Tô Ngọc Vân often turned his writing skills towards discussions of the political role of art. In 1947 he wrote:
“Propaganda art is not art because it expresses a political purpose, raises political slogans, delineates a political path for the people to follow.”

In a 1949 essay “Study or Not?” Vân commented:
“Here lies the principal point, the torment of my soul: how to make the self that serves the nation and the masses and the self that serves art, the artist cannot forget this responsibility.”

During the period of resistance, Vân oversaw the establishment of the new state school for the arts in Viet-Minh territory in the hills of Viet Bac, north of Hanoi. Known as the Resistance Class (Khoa Khang Chien) the school offered instruction in philosophy, politics and Marxist-Leninist thought. Tô Ngọc Vân taught drawing and espoused Marxist-Leninist principles. The school and its students produced paintings, posters, stamps and other visual emblems that served Communist ideology and supported the resistance. In its workshops, students designed stamps and currency for the new government. By the time it closed in 1954 (to later reopen in Hanoi) the school produced more than thirty graduates, many of whom became important Vietnamese modern artists.

To Ngoc Vân was a committed modernist—more than most of his peers—who struggled to delineated post-colonial artistic roles and values. He wrote: “The artistic change is so difficult, we feel it is as heavy as moving a mountain.” His early works had been idyllic, celebrating a lyrical and nostalgic image of Vietnam but after joining the struggle against the French his subjects—often painted in lacquer—included revolutionary soldiers and images of peasants turned resistance fighters. His response to Hồ Chí Minh’s 1948 call for art “to inspire nation-building resistance” was conflicted, as he worried that simplistic propaganda was not in line with the “higher calling” of true art. “My torment of the soul,” he philosophized, “is how to make the self that serves the nation and that masses and the self that serves art—the artist cannot forget this responsibility—not to come into conflict, or even worse, betray one another.”

​Tô Ngọc Vân died in 1954 during a French bombing raid that accompanied the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, after which the French were forced out of Viet Nam. After his death Vân was awarded the title of “Martyr” and buried at Mai Dich Cemetary.



Source: Le Pho Art Gallery -