Vũ Cao Đàm (1908-2000)
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“Today there’s a search for a multi-racial, multi-cultural expression and I think I’m the first to have tried to reconcile, in a way that will not upset tradition, my Asian roots with my idea of what I understand of the Western Masters.” - Vũ Cao Đàm
Vũ Cao Đàm was a renowned Vietnamese-born modern painter and a graduate of Hanoi’s École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam). The second half of his career was spent in Paris where he and other Vietnamese émigrés including Mai Trung Thứ, Lê Phổ and Lê Thị Lựu also lived, exhibited and established careers far from their native country.
Vũ Cao Đàm was born on January 8th, 1908 to Vũ Dihn Thi and Pham Thi Cuc: he was the fifth of 14 children, nine of whom survived to adulthood. His father—a convert to Catholicism who spoke excellent French—was the founder and director of the Hanoi “School of Interpreters” which educated Mandarins to serve the French colonial government. A cultured, literary man who also was a master of Chinese calligraphy, Vũ Dihn Thi raised his children to admire French culture while also sharing his veneration for Confucianism and Chinese literature.
In 1926 Đàm entered the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He studied painting with the school’s founder, Victor Tardieu and Decoration with Joseph Inguimberty. He also studied architecture with a man named Batteur and as a result Cao Đàm’s early paintings depicted ancient monuments include Van Mieu Temple and Bach Ma Pagoda. When a sculpture program was established Đàm created several portrait busts including one of his father and another of Victor Tardieu. The bronze bust of Victor Tardieu was later donated to the École des Beaux Arts d’Indochine by the Tardieu family.
After his graduation in 193l, Cao Đàm received a scholarship allowed him to travel to France where he would remain the rest of his life. During the ocean voyage to his new home Cao Đàm made portrait busts of two other passengers: the French minister Paul Reynaud and his daughter. Upon arrival Cao Đàm participated in the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale, directed by his former mentor Victor Tardieu. He then enrolled in the École du Louvre and exhibited his works in several important salons. Cao Đàm continued working in a favorite medium—gouache and ink on silk—making exquisite paintings that display a remarkable facility and lightness of touch.
France provided Cao Đàm with life-changing exposure to modern art. While living in the dormitories of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris he discovered and took an interest in the works of the sculptors Giacometti and Rodin. In galleries and museums he looked carefully at paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, Bonnard and Matisse. At the 1937 World’s Fair—where his friend Lê Phổ was an art director for the Indochinese display—he saw Picasso’s “Guernica.”
In 1938 Cao Đàm married Renée Appriou with whom he would have two children. When the German occupation begin in 1940 bronze casting was banned so the artist worked for several years in terracotta. After the Liberation he exhibited in a group show at the Roux-Hentschel Galerie with Lê Phổ and Mai Thứ. In 1946 he had an audience with Hồ Chí Minh which resulted in a bust and medallion.
Poor health—he suffered from asthma—forced Cao Đàm to leave Paris in 1949. He moved to Les Heures Claires, just over 20 miles from Marseilles, not far from Matisse’s Chapel du Rosaire in Vence. Living in the south of France also gave Cao Đàm access to other notable artists living nearby including Marc Chagall and Jean Dubuffet. A successful exhibit in Aix en Provence in 1954 led to numerous sales and also led to an introduction to the tailor Michele Sapone, an Italian immigrant who was known to exchange tailored suits for works of art. Exhibitions in Brussels, London and New York built Cao Đàm’s international reputation during the 1960s.
Cao Đàm’s increasingly Chagallesque oil paintings of women and couples sold well at New York’s Wally Findlay Galleries though the seventies and eighties. In 1985, during a visit to his daughter Mallorca, Cao Đàm briefly returned to sculpture.
Vũ Cao Đàm died in Paris in on July 23, 2000 at the age of 92.
Vũ Cao Đàm was a renowned Vietnamese-born modern painter and a graduate of Hanoi’s École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam). The second half of his career was spent in Paris where he and other Vietnamese émigrés including Mai Trung Thứ, Lê Phổ and Lê Thị Lựu also lived, exhibited and established careers far from their native country.
Vũ Cao Đàm was born on January 8th, 1908 to Vũ Dihn Thi and Pham Thi Cuc: he was the fifth of 14 children, nine of whom survived to adulthood. His father—a convert to Catholicism who spoke excellent French—was the founder and director of the Hanoi “School of Interpreters” which educated Mandarins to serve the French colonial government. A cultured, literary man who also was a master of Chinese calligraphy, Vũ Dihn Thi raised his children to admire French culture while also sharing his veneration for Confucianism and Chinese literature.
In 1926 Đàm entered the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He studied painting with the school’s founder, Victor Tardieu and Decoration with Joseph Inguimberty. He also studied architecture with a man named Batteur and as a result Cao Đàm’s early paintings depicted ancient monuments include Van Mieu Temple and Bach Ma Pagoda. When a sculpture program was established Đàm created several portrait busts including one of his father and another of Victor Tardieu. The bronze bust of Victor Tardieu was later donated to the École des Beaux Arts d’Indochine by the Tardieu family.
After his graduation in 193l, Cao Đàm received a scholarship allowed him to travel to France where he would remain the rest of his life. During the ocean voyage to his new home Cao Đàm made portrait busts of two other passengers: the French minister Paul Reynaud and his daughter. Upon arrival Cao Đàm participated in the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale, directed by his former mentor Victor Tardieu. He then enrolled in the École du Louvre and exhibited his works in several important salons. Cao Đàm continued working in a favorite medium—gouache and ink on silk—making exquisite paintings that display a remarkable facility and lightness of touch.
France provided Cao Đàm with life-changing exposure to modern art. While living in the dormitories of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris he discovered and took an interest in the works of the sculptors Giacometti and Rodin. In galleries and museums he looked carefully at paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, Bonnard and Matisse. At the 1937 World’s Fair—where his friend Lê Phổ was an art director for the Indochinese display—he saw Picasso’s “Guernica.”
In 1938 Cao Đàm married Renée Appriou with whom he would have two children. When the German occupation begin in 1940 bronze casting was banned so the artist worked for several years in terracotta. After the Liberation he exhibited in a group show at the Roux-Hentschel Galerie with Lê Phổ and Mai Thứ. In 1946 he had an audience with Hồ Chí Minh which resulted in a bust and medallion.
Poor health—he suffered from asthma—forced Cao Đàm to leave Paris in 1949. He moved to Les Heures Claires, just over 20 miles from Marseilles, not far from Matisse’s Chapel du Rosaire in Vence. Living in the south of France also gave Cao Đàm access to other notable artists living nearby including Marc Chagall and Jean Dubuffet. A successful exhibit in Aix en Provence in 1954 led to numerous sales and also led to an introduction to the tailor Michele Sapone, an Italian immigrant who was known to exchange tailored suits for works of art. Exhibitions in Brussels, London and New York built Cao Đàm’s international reputation during the 1960s.
Cao Đàm’s increasingly Chagallesque oil paintings of women and couples sold well at New York’s Wally Findlay Galleries though the seventies and eighties. In 1985, during a visit to his daughter Mallorca, Cao Đàm briefly returned to sculpture.
Vũ Cao Đàm died in Paris in on July 23, 2000 at the age of 92.