Realism in Art Exhibition

11th June 2010, Friday

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in. – Amy Lowell

I had recently visited the Singapore Arts Museum in order to view an exhibition entitled ‘Realism in Art: Voices behind the Strokes’. Using the advantage of the June holidays, I had decided to spare some time in order to immerse myself into an aspect of Vietnamese culture, which is to say art.

However, this is not any art exhibition. Unique as it is, the exhibition showcases works of art from several countries all over Asia, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Korea, Japan and of course Vietnam. The focus of my visit is of course to observe and appreciate the Vietnamese paintings presented there.

Realism however redefines and narrows down the scope of art. ‘Realism in art’ refers to a representation where the artist strives to create the appearance of physical ‘reality’, by making observations of his surroundings and conveying them on his paintings. Yet this ‘reality’ is subjective, as perceptions and experiences influence how we see and understand the world, and as such we may observe features in realist paintings where the painter depicts his art, influenced by social, cultural and political conditions.

As such, by observing the portraits and landscapes of Vietnam, we are able to appreciate and know more about the Vietnamese by how they are portrayed in the pictures as well as how the Vietnamese artist depicts his observation and why he did so.

For example, Blood Law 10/591 by Le Huy Tiep was a painting that was painted in 1972 during the period of the Vietnam War which ended in 1975. The painting depicts a group of people being executed in an apartment by a firing squad. There are 5 human figures in the painting, a mother and child, 2 half naked man and another man wearing a bandage. Since they are all unarmed and in civilian clothing, we can assume that they are all civilians. The picture is painted in red, showing the mood of chaos, anger and anguish in the situation.

More importantly, this picture shows the atrocities of the military forces in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. According to the context of the painting, the artist is speaking out against the law enforced by Southern Government to curb support of the people for North Vietnam and the reunification of the 2 countries. Those suspected of supporting the North were executed accordingly, and this implicates the loss of the lives of many civilians who were victims of the war. The focus of the portrait can be said to be that the suffering of the civilians is much more as compared to the loss of both military sides in a war. This is also not to forget the pain and suffering endured by civilians. The artist uses to this painting to dignify the civilians who had been condemned and executed so brutally by the Southern Government in Vietnam and also to remember and remind future generations of the horrid past.

Politically, though, this painting just reminds me of the many other propaganda paintings that portray the opposing forces negatively, this one shines the enemy of communist Northern Vietnam in a negative light. Or it may be possible that the artist uses this painting to glorify or maybe please the winning Northern forces, which inevitably became the rulers of Vietnam. Still, this is something to take note of, as we explore the culture and people of Vietnam.

Realism itself is not an Asian, indigenous concept of art, but a form which was expanded and spread in Asia by the West, through interaction with locals and other forms of communication. We are able to see in these paintings how the technique had been exploited by the locals in differing political, social and economical conditions. And these ‘realistic’ paintings offer insights about the conditions of modernity through Asian art.