Moscow's Outreach to Hanoi: Artistic Ties between the Soviet Union and Vietnam

Abstract

In the 1960s through the 1970s, and afterwards, a number of Vietnamese artists travelled to the Soviet Union to study at prestigious Soviet art and film academies. While Vietnamese artists did not develop a considerable body of work that can match the grandiose works of socialist realism under Josef Stalin, some artists did work in a socialist realist style that merged academic oil painting styles with local themes. This essay examines the work of Vũ Duy Nghı̃a (1935–2022), Lê Huy Tiếp (b. 1950) and Đào Châu Hải (b. 1955), who studied in the Soviet Union during this period and integrated various painting methods, styles and techniques into their art works. The legacy of Soviet–Vietnam relations is a still largely understudied field. While archival sources are difficult to access, the essay relies on interviews with two of the living artists. It looks into the significance of studying in the Soviet Union for these art workers, and assesses the impact that it had on the development of Vietnamese culture overall.