Name Dao Chu | ||
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Đào Sĩ Chu (1911-1974) was a Vietnamese painter who studied in France and was known for following the traditional style of the EBAI school. He was also an organizer of art exhibitions and writer on the history of art.
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First approach to Fine Arts
Đào Sĩ Chu was born on September 20, 1911 (Ất Dậu), Hà Nội, Việt Nam, from an intellectual family whose his father Đào Huống Mai was an industrialist and one of his sisters was the renowned pre-war poet Vân Đài, Đào Thị Nguyệt Minh.
Finishing his secondary classes in Lycée Albert-Sarraut, his family send him to study pharmacy at the University of Toulouse, France and at that time, painting was only his hobby. After graduating as a 1st grade Pharmacist (pharmacien de 1ère classe) in 1939, he had initial contacts with well-known artist painters of Hànội such as Trần Bình Lộc, Lê Phổ, Tô Ngọc Vân, ... who were graduates of l'École des beaux arts de l'Indochine(EBAI) for first painting techniques and therefore, he was influenced by the EBAI school.
Keen to be an Artist Painter
During his travel in 1949-1951, and visiting many Fine Arts Museums in France, he devoted of himself to fine arts and determined to study painting in a private workshop. His first exhibition with Lê Bá Đẚng, (a painter who will be famous after that) was at Vibaud Galerie and his paintings were received appreciative comments from art magazines Les Ponts des Arts, Le Cri de Paris ... for his color composition and portrait skills. To be heartened by the first success, his other paintings were exhibited consecutively at Grand Palais and Salon des Artistes Independants in Paris where he was a member of the Societe des Artistes Independants.
Back to Viêt Nam, he set up his private and permanent exhibition room named Liên Hương in Hà Nội for his colleagues paintings and often participated in others exhibitions organised in the Opera House of Hà Nội.
Passion and Works
Awarded Golden Medal at the Sàigòn Exhibition in 1955, he was appointed to be the Chairman of the National Cultural Conference(1957) for promoting the next cultural movements and events as the annual Spring Painting Award (1959) and then, the First International Exhibition of Fine Arts of Sàigòn (October 1962) of which he was Delegate and Secretary General.
In an interview, he said " Art should be a creation. Although, there are many tendencies in Realism and Impressionism, I believe that the future will belong to Cubism, non-figurative and abstracts arts, however I prefer realism-impressionism oil painting ".
His typical oil painting of Thủ Đức landscape was printed on March page in the Calendar 1959 of the United States of Information Service (USIS).
From the years 1960 - 1970, Professor of the École des Arts appliqués de Gia Định. Professor and Fine Arts Advisor of Minh Đức catholic University until his death in June 16, 1974 (Giáp Dần).
Critics and Tributes
After 1975, his theories were criticized by Nguyễn Phi Hoanh, artist painter (1904 - 2001), a graduate of l'École des beaux arts of Toulouse, author of the book Mỹ Thuật Việt Nam (Fine Arts of Viêt Nam), published by Nhà Xuất Bản Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh in November 1984.
Till he late of 90s, two exhibitions were organized by two private galleries of Trương Văn Ý and Bùi Quốc Chí of Đức Minh VN Collection for famous artist painters of Việt Nam, including some Đào Sĩ Chu's paintings.
April 2002, in an auction sale of Sotheby's Singapore appeared his painting of «Young Girl Feeding Chicken» (1974). Then, a second auction sales was organised in France in October, 2009, including one Đào Sï Chu's painting, «Jeune Femme Pensive» (painted in 1962).
In June 2011, according to the newspaper Nhân Dân online, the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts in Hà Nội possess a high-value collection of 6.000 paintings including 400 oil paintings and among them are around 30 oil paintings of the contemporary art executed before 1945 by famous masters as Lê Huy Miến, Trần Văn Cẩn, Tô Ngọc Vân, ... besides, there are 09 oil paintings of Đào Sĩ Chu which have no dates and are also classified in the list of contemporary art.
From October 2014, a humble painting of Đào Sĩ Chu could be seen at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts .
Original sketches and painting of the «Young girl feeding chicken»
This painting was executed by Đào Sĩ Chu on December 1968 (during the Christmas time) and the one of Sotheby's]] Catalogue April 2002 is only a version which also painted by himself in 1974 as some gifts for his close friends and the face of the «Young girl» is his niece Mai (Đào Lê Như Mai).
On the internet, we could find that there are many reproductions.