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Press Release

Exhibition: Images of Vietnamese Women in the work of Duong Anh

A major retrospective of the work of reknowned Vietnamese artist, Duong Anh has opened at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi. Duong Anh is known for his use of female imagery as a recurring motif and the exhibition focuses on 100 of these works.

Duong Anh was born in 1935 at La Khe, Ha Dong, Ha Noi. He began his career as a lithographic printmaker using the technique of engraving on stone to create propaganda materials for the resistance movement. He taught himself how to draw before undertaking formal training at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts.

Duong Anh often used his daily observations of women at work as inspirations for his paintings and propaganda posters. Images of Vietnamese women account for more than one quarter of his art work. Duong Anh has created more than 500 art works in many mediums such as: pencil, charcoal, pen, pastel, and watercolour on paper and silk.

This exhibition introduces 100 art works created by Duong Anh in the period from 1956 to 1999. They reflect the contribution of Vietnamese Women to protecting their homeland, and their productive labour in daily life. Many of these works have been displayed in National Fine Arts Exhibitions, including: Bumper Crop, Spinning and Weaving Silk, Girl Shovelling Coal and Hai Phong Cement Factory (1958). These works are filled with life and aim to make the onlooker reflect on their individual contribution to the country’s destiny and life’s difficulties and challenges.

During the years of American War, Duong Anh visited many places such as Lao Cai, Son La, Thanh Hoa and Ha Dong to record images of the resistance movement. His images of militia women guarding the nation’s skies, happily receiving letters and catching up on news were inspired by the women and girls he saw in his travels.

Many paintings were created by chance. Guarding the Fatherland’s Skies was created by Duong Anh when he went to visit an Alert Unit Group in La Phu, Ha Dong. There he saw a woman counting US aircraft and asked what she was doing. He was inspired by her answer “I am guarding the fatherland’s skies”. Writing on a Gun Stock was created following Duong Anh’s visit to a Militia Group in Binh Da, Thanh Oai, Ha Tay. The painting records a woman writing with her gun at the ready. The admiration and sentiment the artist felt for these women is reflected in: Sin Ma Cai Militia Members, Militia Members Catch Up On News .

The art works are divided into three thematic categories. Propaganda Posters from the period 1967-1992 feature women’s roles in the defence of the nation; Everyday Beauty features landscapes and simple scenes from daily life and Labour and Production which shows women at work in construction sites, factories and on farms.

The exhibition is open from 8.30am to 4.30pm each day. For more information contact Ha Phan at haphan116@gmail.com or

+84 09826 53568.

You can download the newest book of Kim Ngan Pham from the Vietnam Women’s Museum: http://www.lulu.com/content/5237538
Content: ‘Street vendors’ is devoted to the women who make their living by selling goods in the street. It portrays their daily lives, the diffi culties and hardships they suffer to make a living, and their dreams for a better future. It acknowledges the understanding and support they receive from their families as well as the community, and the contribution they make to the society and the economy of Vietnam.
www.lulu.com is a interessant link for us all: We can print economically books and interested people can download them without we have a stock in our magazin!!

12.08.2008    Nguyen Thi Hien Linh from the women’s museum of South Vietnam wrote today: “We already visited the web site www.womeninmuseum.org and have seen alot of beautiful information about our congress. Thank you very much for your distribution.
We will send you Vietnamese translation of resolution in the next few days.
Hereby is our museum web site adress: http://www.womaninmuseumsouth.edu.vn/ for you to up date a link. Thanks and best regards.”