Nhan Dan Online - Forty contemporary lacquer paintings and more than 200 handicraft products from craft villages and ethnic minorities are on display at an exhibition entitled ‘ Vietnamese Lacquer and Handicrafts ’ in the southern French city of Marseille. Speaking at the opening of the exhibition, Marseille Vice - Mayor Roca Serra expressed his pleasure with Vietnam’s impressive and colourful presence in the city, saying that the exhibition is a continuation of the fine … [Read more...]

VietNamNet Bridge – To pursue her passion for son mai (lacquer) painting, Japanese native Saeko Ando lived in Ha Noi for 18 years. After mastering the requisite skills, she planned to introduce the art form to the world through exhibitions, lectures and symposia. Although the materials and techniques Saeko uses are mainly Vietnamese, art critics and fellow artist s agreed that a Japanese soul exudes from her work, which is currently on display at the ongoing exhibition Japan in Me at … [Read more...]

VietNamNet Bridge – Son Dong fine arts village in Hanoi’s outlying Hoai Duc District is known as a dynamic craft village with enduring vitality, where talented artisans breathe fresh air into their products and enthusiastically promote their brand to the world. The village is called a ‘village of artisans’ as it is home to more than 4,000 craftsmen, who earned their living with their skilful hands. Hundreds are young people, between 26 and 40, many of whom own … [Read more...]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has listed Dong Ho folk paintings as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.Dong Ho painting (Tranh Đông Hồ or Tranh làng Hồ), full name Dong Ho folk woodcut painting (Tranh khắc gỗ dân gian Đông Hồ) is a genre of Vietnamese woodcut paintings originated from Dong Ho village (làng Đông Hồ) in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam.[1]Using the traditional điệp paper and colours derived from nature, craftsmen print Dong Ho pictures of different themes from good … [Read more...]

The Chinese produced lacquer paintings already 800 years ago, but the lacquer painting technique has hit a renaissance due to a group of artists in Vietnam. They have taken the difficult art form into the 21st Century. Trinh Tuan is 38 years old and in many ways typical for the 6,000 artists who live in Hanoi, the art Mecca in Asia . He received his training at the Hanoi Industrial University for the Fine Arts, one of Hanoi's two art Universities. He has an outgoing personality, is curious, … [Read more...]

You may have seen them before. They adorn the walls of Vietnamese restaurants everywhere in the world, there may be one hiding by the cash register at the neighborhood Vietnamese business, your Vietnamese friends hang them up as Lunar New Year approaches. In Vietnam , production of these folk paintings peaks right before Tet as merchants stock up in anticipation of heavy customer demand. These paintings are traditionally used to decorate homes for the New Year festival. … [Read more...]

Gao village in Thanh Loi commune, Nam Dinh province, has preserved the age-old tradition of making unicorn heads for the annual full-moon festival which falls in the middle of the eighth lunar month. During the subsidized economy several decades ago, the villagers decided to establish a cooperative that only made unicorn heads for the festival. The cooperative created intricately designed unicorn heads from materials such as used papers, inks, and bamboo supplied by the State, and … [Read more...]