Vietnam

by Kenta Takeshige

The following text is still a work in progress.
Therefore, there are some misunderstandings about the contents. We apologize for the inconvenience.

In Vietnam, lacquer is called Son Ta, and lacquer art or lacquer painting is called "Son Mai".
In China, Korea or Japan, the development of lacquer art technology was supported by those in power at the time. However, Vietnam was constantly threatened by foreign powers. There were less patrons who could encourage arts & crafts and thus lacquer crafts remained rather modest. In the southern province of Tuong Binh, various traditional techniques have been passed on and lacquer art is still practiced today.
The eye-catching Vietnamese lacquer technique is the "eggshell technique". Egg shells are crushed and made into fine pieces, which are pasted with lacquer to create designs such as mosaics. Today, there are many artists who create pictorial Son Mai using eggshell technique and various other techniques and colors.

An encounter between Vietnamese lacquer and French painting

The French colonial government founded the Indochina School of Art (now Vietnam University of the Arts) in Hanoi in 1925. French teachers were fascinated by Vietnamese lacquer and enthusiastically incorporated it into their paintings. By trial and error method, lacquer painting Son Mai has become known internationally. Son Mai is considered contemporary art. The character of the high rubber content of Vietnamese lacquer enables the rich expressive power of paintings.