No direction home ... a complete unknown ... like a rolling luggager: An Emotional Roller Coaster of a Museum

15 December 2014

visited the art museum

yesterday, the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum. Which actually is housed in two beautiful buildings that were residences during the colonial period, and definitely show French

influences in the

architecture. I spent somewhere between two and three hours between the two museums. Richard went to the War Remnants Museum (you can understand why I opted out of that visit).

The website for the art museum doesn't seem to work, but you can find more information here:

http://www.vietnamonline.com/attraction/fine-arts-museum-ho-chi-minh-city.html

The two buildings are beautiful,

with curving

staircases, stained glass windows, tiled floors that look

like intricate carpets or quilt patterns, all kinds of

interesting interior

architectural details. And wonderful views from the various terraces, as well as amazing decorations on the

roofs.

The building just inside the gate, to the right, has visitors begin on the third floor. Here, the exhibits begin with stone carvings dating

back to the 7th and 8th centuries CE. There were elephants, various Hindu gods and goddesses, masks, other deity figures. Then wood carvings, ceramics, silk painting, metal work - none quite as old as the stone, but more and more intricate and equally beautiful.

The lower two floors, and the other building, to the left of the entrance, are devoted to painting, predominantly in oil on canvas. There was also gouache, lacquer painting, some watercolor, and a number of drawings.

So, the paintings. Many were traditionally realistic in style, others showed influences from the Impressionists, or Picasso's Cubism. I enjoyed the paintings that portrayed traditional Vietnamese life, especially families and children. Green seemed to dominate the pallette, and likely will dominate the landscape once we travel to more rural locales.

And then, there were the war paintings. Not necessarily paintings created during the war, but paintings influenced by the war. Artists paint to say something, about their life or their world or their viewpoint.  Whether the artists painted during the war, or lived through it, or their parents lived through it, there are influences of the war. Memories. Scars. Emotional and physical scars. As well as the after-effects of chemical warfare.

So, I started looking at the paintings that seemed to get sadder and sadder. Paintings with soldiers interacting with people. Paintings with soldiers in a family history, or a painter who was a child (and presumably is in the painting being held by his soldier father). Drawings of soldiers, drawn during the war. Eventually, what seemed to be a memorial to artists who died during the war, perhaps creating drawings, watercolors, taking photos to memorialize the bravery of their fighters, and the horrors of war.

I was getting more and more depressed. I was about 13 or 14 or so when I became aware of the Vietnam War, it was 1968ish. Much of the evening news was devoted to the war, and the anti-war protests. I did as much anti-war protesting as a 14 year old could - wrote poems against war in general, made anti-war art in class, wore black for the students killed at Kent State, eventually skipped school to attend an anti-bomb rally. Anyway, suffice it to say that I was on the periphery of the anti-war movement. So seeing what Vietnamese artists painted during and after the war was very emotional. One can oppose war on an intellectual and emotional level without ever having experienced the horrors of war. But these artists, these paintings, were created by the people who DID experience the war, who lived through it, who were victims of war, and in many ways were victims of US involvement. Sadness and guilt, despite having opposed the war. Collective guilt.

And then the posters. The resistance posters. Wow. This is what the information placard says: "Propaganda posters have a specific message and style. During this period these resistance messages were an effective way to denounce war crimes and disclose the invader's methods. The works were a strong encouragement to the Vietnamese people to aid the national defense. The works are now part of the historic art record. The works produced during this difficult period seem to have a profound response with younger generations. They easily feel the hard times the country endured; in the style of the idiom with its concise images and titles entirely within the painting, usually succinctly displayed or simply written."

Yeah. So we see the evil US soldier, eerily, scarily similar to the way the Nazis portrayed Jews in posters before and during WWII. Evil. Ugly. Huge noses. Monstrous. Killing machines, depraved, and deserving of death. And monochromatic, not in living color.

Okay, so yes, I can see that the US would be considered an invader by the Vietnamese, especially the current government. Even though the US citizens feel as if we were there to help the people of South Vietnam.

But it isn't easy seeing oneself portrayed that way, despite haven't actually been the invader. In spite of having protested against that invasion. It just became more and more depressing. And validating all those internal thoughts and emotions about the abhorrance of war.

I was about ready to cry. Walking around somewhat teary eyed, blinking back the tears. Then I looked out the window, and saw children drawing and painting. Happily creating art.

So of course I went down their, to the courtyard. Immediately cheered up watching the littlest kids, chatting with the oldest group (oldest child might have been 10 or 12), and talking to the teachers. Everyone was okay with a photo or two, except one little boy in the youngest group - so of course I gave that five year old his privacy and didn't take his photo.

It was an emotional roller coaster of a museum. I staggered back outside feeling slightly dazed - cheered by the children's happy faces, but still under the cloud of the war art.

I don't know if other visitors, especially younger visitors, would feel the same way, not having lived through the war on either side of the ocean. But I think anyone, pro-war or anti-war, hawk or dove, would be emotionally moved at this museum, especially if one really stops and looks.

So, I'm including small photos of the art with the names of the artists and the titles. I think artists definitely deserve credit for their work.

And if you're here in Saigon, try to get to this museum. The buildings are worth seeing. And be prepared for an emotional journey through Vietnamese life in the last century or so.