For a man whose image is seen everywhere in Vietnam,
surprisingly little is known about the life of Ho Chi Minh. Most of what we know
is the official story, that he was a communist and socialist, a tenacious
leader whose near-mystical haze inspired a nation to reach his goal of an
independent Vietnam. Today, posters of his benign-looking face continue to
smile down on the farmlands and cityscapes of a now undivided and liberated
Vietnam. In this poster, the red and gold of traditional lacquered Buddhist
worship objects has morphed into the yellow and crimson of the socialist
revolution, creating a graphic piece of propaganda art.
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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 ...
Read More
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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Details and Dimensions
15 x 10.5"
A silk-screen reproduction of
the original propaganda poster on rice paper.
