An unusually serene looking print for the period, this blue-washed poster
brings to mind the hardworking fishermen that trawl the 2,000 miles of Vietnam’s
coastline. At a time when the workers were idealized and championed, this
poster depicts a contented looking fisherman hauling in an impressive looking
catch.
In 1957 Trung Chin, the Minister of Information for the
Northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, paraphrased the well-known
Leninist dogma, declaring, 'Art is only real art if it becomes propaganda'.
Over the ...
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In 1957 Trung Chin, the Minister of Information for the
Northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, paraphrased the well-known
Leninist dogma, declaring, 'Art is only real art if it becomes propaganda'.
Over the next three decades, as the country fought against the French, the
Americans and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese ‘art force’ played an
essential part in relaying the government’s message to a difficult to reach
population. Amid bombing campaigns and land battles, the artists cycled their
posters to villages across Vietnam. Despite these brutal conditions they
created works of striking originality, pieces that combined 1960s Soviet art with
Vietnam’s own folk art traditions.
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