One hundred years ago, on October 27 1924, the Indochina School of Fine Arts was finally established by decree of Governor General Martial Merlin. This date marked the beginning of Vietnam's modern art revival. October 2024 was the occasion for Aguttes to celebrate this anniversary.

A must-see exhibition at the Cernuschi Museum !
Lê Phô, Mai-Thu, Vu Cao Dam. Pioneers of modern Vietnamese art in France.

Tiếng Việt
French

From October 11, 2024 to March 9, 2025, the Cernuschi Museum in Paris is staging the first retrospective dedicated to the Vietnamese trio Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ and Vũ Cao Đàm. An ensemble of 150 works from 25 public and private collections is brought together. These three artists graduated from the very first classes of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, in 1930 for the first two and in 1931 for Vũ Cao Đàm. Their spotlight at Cernuschi today coincides, like many other events organized elsewhere, with the centenary of the creation of this establishment in Hanoi, modelled on the Paris School of Fine Arts.
With this retrospective, the Cernuschi Museum sets out to offer a chronology of the life and work of each of these three artists. It illustrates the training they all shared in Hanoi, among the artistic elite selected by Victor Tardieu, the choice each of them made to move to France in the mid-1930s, and their respective careers.
Curated by Anne Fort with the support of the three painters' families, the exhibition sheds special light on the artists' intersecting careers. Each artist's mastery of the various techniques studied, whether Western, Asian or the fruit of research explored at the Indochina School of Fine Arts, is brought face to face in this exhibition. While each artist's talent for painting on silk or canvas is amply represented, it is with a masterly three-panel lacquered wood screen that Lê Phổ greets visitors in one of the first rooms. And while some of Vũ Cao Đàm's sculptures recall the features of the figures who marked this period, it is through exercises in animal subjects that the latter delivers charming hens not unlike those of his Western contemporaries. The chronological scenography allows us to appreciate the style of each painter, marked by a strong Vietnamese identity, as well as his aesthetic evolution through Western artistic modernity.


Mai Trung Thứ
Le coffret à bijoux, 1960
nk and colors on silk, signed and dated upper right. In original frame made by the artist
46.5 x 60.5 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection, France
Sale [28] Aguttes, March 8, 2021, lot 1
Almine Ruiz Picasso Collection

A work discovered by Aguttes on the cover of the Cernuschi catalog !
Over the past ten years, Aguttes has auctioned more than 400 works by these three artists (around 155 by Lê Phổ, 135 by Mai Trung Thứ and 110 by Vũ Cao Đàm). It is a great honor for Aguttes to invite you to revisit, on the occasion of this retrospective, a symbolic selection of 5 remarkable works that have recently passed under its hammer and have remained in Europe. Of particular note is Le coffret à bijoux (cat. 94) by Mai Trung Thứ, which graces the cover of the Cernuschi catalog and was auctioned by Aguttes at its 28th dedicated sale on March 8, 2021; or the works referenced cat. 82, 92, 104, 138. Take advantage of this rare opportunity, as almost all of the other 395 works discovered and sold by Aguttes have now passed into other confidential private hands.

An interesting bibliography
At the end of your visit, it's time to enrich your library with three quality works on this rarely covered subject: the Cernuschi catalog published by Paris Musées, which documents this retrospective with numerous previously unpublished photos from the family archives; the monograph written by Yannick Vu-Jakober on his father, Vũ Cao Đàm, and, of course, the book recently published by In Fine Editions by Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, L'art moderne en Indochine.

The revival of modern art in Indochina - 25 artists, 52 works.
A symposium organized by the Association des Artistes d'Asie in Paris and moderated by Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, October 11, 2024

In the wake of the opening of the Cernuschi exhibition, Aguttes in Neuilly-sur-Seine took the opportunity on October 11 to participate in the spotlighting of modern Vietnamese art by hosting an event organized by the Association des Artistes d'Asie at Paris.
A discussion moderated by Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier enabled rich exchanges between descendants of painters present in Paris such as Yannick Vu-Jakober and Michel Vu, children of Vũ Cao Đàm; Alain Le-Kim, son of Lê Phổ ; Mai Lan Phuong and Aymeric Le Brun, daughter and grandson of Mai Trung Thứ and also art market players such as Hubert Lacroix, director of the Susse foundries from 2003 to 2023, in charge of the Susse archives, expert before the Paris Court of Appeal; Philippe Augier, founder of the Museum Pasafika in Bali; Daniel Gervis, art dealer, publisher and founder of three fairs: Basel Art Fair, Fiac and Salon de Mars, in Paris and Geneva; Phoebe Scott, curator of Singapore's National Gallery; Nadine André-Pallois; Anne Doridou-Heim, journalist for La Gazette Drouot...
Fifty-two works, testifying to the talent of 25 artists from the Indochina School of Fine Arts (classmates of Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ and Vũ Cao Đàm and thus linked to the revival of Vietnamese modern art), adorned the picture rails for the occasion, forming a setting conducive to quality exchanges between participants. The exhibition was only made possible thanks to the confidence of all the owners who kindly lent their property for the occasion, in particular Philippe Augier (Museum Pasifika, Bali), Han Ngoc Vu and several other private collectors - our thanks once again !
This symposium was organized in the wake of the recent publication of L'art moderne en Indochine, written by Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier. As a reminder, this publication led to meetings in Paris, Hanoi and Saigon in the first half of 2024, and was a finalist for the renowned Prix du Cercle Montherlant 2024 of the Academy of Fine Arts. In early October 2024, the Association des Artistes d'Asie at Paris published a catalog for the exhibition Le renouveau de l'art moderne en Indochine - 25 artistes, 52 œuvres. A video retransmission of all the discussions at the symposium will soon be available.


The revival of modern art in Indochina - 25 artists, 52 works. A symposium moderated by Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, October 11, 2024.
a. Sculpture in the fine arts in the 1930s: with Hubert Lacroix, director of the Susse foundries from 2003 to 2023, in charge of the Susse archives, expert to the Paris Court of Appeal and Yannick Vu-Jakober, daughter of Vũ Cao Đàm.


b. Promoting artistic creation through fairs, exhibitions and galleries: with Philippe Augier, founder of Museum Pasafika in Bali; Alain Le-Kim, son of Lê Phổ; Daniel Gervis, art dealer and publisher, founder of three fairs: Basel

Next sale
Asian Painters : 18 February 2025

For more information or to include a lot in our upcoming sales, please contact
Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier - Expert
+33 1 41 92 06 49 - reynier@aguttes.com