A Sculptor's Silk Painting Sets the Auction Record for a Vietnamese Artist
Vu Cao Dam's 1939 silk painting Conversation d'élégantes au jardin sold for HK$28.96 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong, a record for a Vietnamese artist. He started out as a sculptor.
[A Sculptor's Silk Painting Sets the Auction Record for a Vietnamese Artist]
At Sotheby's Hong Kong's Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction in late September, a Vietnamese silk painting from 1939 sold for HK$28.96 million including buyer's premium, about US$3.69 million. According to Sotheby's and Vietnamese media, it is the highest price ever paid at public auction for a work by a Vietnamese artist.
The previous record belonged to Mai Trung Thứ's Portrait de Mademoiselle Phuong, which fetched about US$3.1 million, also at Sotheby's Hong Kong, in 2021.
The painting, Conversation d'élégantes au jardin, shows five women in áo dài of different colours, sitting and talking in a garden in front of traditional Vietnamese buildings. The artist painted it in Paris. The scene was home.
The artist was Vũ Cao Đàm, born in Hanoi in 1908. He later settled in France. At art school he trained as a sculptor, and that is how he first made his name.
