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Lot Essay
The Breath of America
In the late 1950s, both Vu Cao Dam and Le Pho felt their career as artists had become stagnant: the exhibitions were spaced out, and the collectors were more discreet. At the time, Vu Cao Dam, who was living in the South of France, concentrated on pictorial research, while Le Pho lived in Paris, and with the help of his wife, Paulette, came to meet Helen Findlay (1909-1992) who was from a gallery owned by a major family, "Wally Findlay". Interested and piqued by Le Pho's work, Helen Findlay offered him a contract. The painter agreed and advised her to meet with his friend "Dam". In 1963, they not only signed a contract, but they also signed into a new stage of their career, exclusively producing oil on canvas in mostly large formats, with more vivacious colors (facilitated by the use of oil on canvas which is then varnished), and more universal themes. These new trends evoked a new period then called the "Findlay period" for both of them and to the end of their careers, and even until their deaths.
With this contractual arrangement, Vu Cao Dam, the wise, was filled not with great excitement but a tenacious "American dream" - a
universal constant of the times.
This painting is the expression of this discreet hope: this beautiful young lady with her hair bun untied, a gesture of Vietnamese modesty only allowed in close intimacy. Her two hands grip her hair and cling to it as if to confirm a deeper questioning apparent on the face.
Dressed in her ao dai, she just reveals her foot coyly, in an abstract décor. This young lady could only be to Vu Cao Dam, the Vietnamese scholar living in France for the past 35 years, an invitation sent to America.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art
In the late 1950s, both Vu Cao Dam and Le Pho felt their career as artists had become stagnant: the exhibitions were spaced out, and the collectors were more discreet. At the time, Vu Cao Dam, who was living in the South of France, concentrated on pictorial research, while Le Pho lived in Paris, and with the help of his wife, Paulette, came to meet Helen Findlay (1909-1992) who was from a gallery owned by a major family, "Wally Findlay". Interested and piqued by Le Pho's work, Helen Findlay offered him a contract. The painter agreed and advised her to meet with his friend "Dam". In 1963, they not only signed a contract, but they also signed into a new stage of their career, exclusively producing oil on canvas in mostly large formats, with more vivacious colors (facilitated by the use of oil on canvas which is then varnished), and more universal themes. These new trends evoked a new period then called the "Findlay period" for both of them and to the end of their careers, and even until their deaths.
With this contractual arrangement, Vu Cao Dam, the wise, was filled not with great excitement but a tenacious "American dream" - a
universal constant of the times.
This painting is the expression of this discreet hope: this beautiful young lady with her hair bun untied, a gesture of Vietnamese modesty only allowed in close intimacy. Her two hands grip her hair and cling to it as if to confirm a deeper questioning apparent on the face.
Dressed in her ao dai, she just reveals her foot coyly, in an abstract décor. This young lady could only be to Vu Cao Dam, the Vietnamese scholar living in France for the past 35 years, an invitation sent to America.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art