Vietnam’s art goes cheap at regional marts
Contemporary Vietnamese art fetches a low price in comparison to paintings from other Southeast Asian countries. This has been blamed on bad marketing for Vietnamese works.
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La Femme à L’Écharpe Verte by Le Pho |
Look at what’s happening at auctions and shows in the region, says Saigon Tiep Thi, and a pattern emerges. Check the results of the Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong on October 3-10, Borobudur in Singapore (October 11), Art Singapore 2009 (October 9-12) and the upcoming Larasati show (October 23-25) in Singapore. What they are all likely to show is that the works of Vietnamese artists have not been highly valued in the world market.
An exception proves the rule
Fourteen paintings by Le Pho (1907-2001), a familiar Vietnamese name, were on sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. His La Femme à L’Écharpe Verte (The Girl with the Green Scarf) was listed among the five most expensive contemporary Southeast Asian paintings there. Pho’s paintings fetched better prices than the works of other masters like Mai Trung Thu (six paintings on sale), Vu Cao Dam, (three), and Nguyen Sang (one).
A noted collector anticipates that Le Pho’s paintings will ‘flock’ to Vietnam in the next five or ten years. Currently, perhaps 95 percent of his works are still in foreign countries. The collector supposes that once Vietnamese realize that the outside world values Le Pho works, they will compete to buy them and ‘bring them home.’
Le Pho’s paintings are not really excellent, the collector continued, but his paintings have been advertised tenaciously, which has helped make them a good ‘brand.’ The prices of his paintings – some valued at $330,000 – eclipse all other Vietnamese works.
At Sotheby’s Hong Kong on October 6, Paysage du Tonkin by Le Pho sold for $264,000, and La Femme à L’Écharpe Verte for $202,564.
The fact that only old names – prewar artists or artists graduated from the French-era Indochina College of Fine Arts – are endlessly featured at regional auctions shows the slow development of Vietnam’s fine art. It seems that none of Vietnam’s current generation of painters have made a big name for themselves.
Only five to ten artists have become known to international collectors. The names include Nguyen Trung, Dang Xuan Hoa, Pham Luan, Nguyen Minh Dong, Boi Tran and Duong Ngoc Son.
Marketing, or the lack of it, seems to be a problem. Art Singapore 2009 is obviously a big art event, but only two Vietnamese galleries, Zen and Ngan Pho, participated in it. The two galleriescould introduce the paintings of only a few artists.
Vietnamese paintings are cheap
The common characteristic of Vietnamese paintings at auctions is that they sell for only $4,000 to $5,000 on average.
The prices are quite low if one notes that the work of regional painters such as Guan Yong (born in 1975), I Nyoman Masriadi (1973), Liv Wei (1972) and Shi Chong (1963) all start at between $400,000 and $600,000.
More and more painters command prices of $100,000 per piece. Indonesia, for example, has hundreds of painters in that category. At the Borobudur’s auction, an oil-paint Landscape by Liv Wei was listed at $333,333- $500,000. Masriadi’s Book Lover (see illustration) listed at $93,333-133,333.
Why are they cheap?
Analysts offer many reasons why Vietnamese works might be considered undervalued.
First of all, while Vietnamese art is considered ‘young’ at painting auctions, already it has earned a bad reputation for copied paintings. This has hindered the development of the Vietnamese painting market beyond our borders.
Second, international collectors and analysts say Vietnamese artists are not creative. They stick to old styles that ‘sell’ rather than try new things.
Third, Vietnam’s art market is not as developed as in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand or the Philippines. Vietnamese elites have not acquired the habit of collecting paintings nor do they think of them as assets. That explains why Vietnamese paintings get disadvantages on the world market.
Analysts say that it will take time to work out these problems. However, it’s already high time to launch methodical and professional marketing campaigns that introduce Vietnamese paintings to the world market.
Source:vietnamnet.vn
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