Vu Cao Dam (Vietnam/France 1908-2000)

Considered a pioneer of Vietnamese modern artists, Vu Cao Dam was privileged to have been educated at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts d’Indochine, Hanoi. Underwritten by a scholarship from L’Ecole, from 1931 to 1949 Dam took up residence in Paris, amid the various emerging arts movements and exceptional vitality of the period.

Further travels to the South of France – at one point having Marc Chagall as a neighbor – rounded out Vu Cao Dam’s exposure to the new wave of thinking among Western artists. This vantagepoint, tempered by his classic Asian training, positioned Dam as a largely relevant Indo-Chinese artist, who immediately won global respect. His work was and remains valued – a bridge across the Franco- Indochine culture of his day, amid the realities of oppressive colonialism.

Dam’s work is found globally among numerous Western and Pan-Asian museums and private collections, including:
Le Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris.

Prestigious exhibitions include
The Yannick and Ben Jakober Foundation, Majorca, (permanent installation)
Realism in Asian Art, a joint exhibition of the National Art Gallery, Singapore and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, 2010.