One of the greatest Masters of Vietnamese Lacquer Work

We decided that for 2011 The Fine Art Partnership would begin cooperation with a living legend of Eastern Art and we are offering his works (a sample of which can be seen in detail on The Fine Art Partnership Ltd TM  pages devoted to him). 

Nguyen Viet Bang

Artist Nguyen Viet Bang was on October 1956 into a very artistic family both musically and as visual artists.

"I have been studying lacquer since the mid 70s and started a career in lacquer with the help of my old master when I was nineteen.  People always ask me :  'Why have you always been so passionate about Lacquer art?' and I say: 

"Lacquer is the type of art where you use a lot of materials to describe PIECES

and OBJECTS in different colours but the outcomes are so mysterious that I can’t even begin to explain or achieve the same effect through other different media. It makes no difference what the subject matter, whether I am painting landscapes, portraits, abstractions ... to me everything in everyday life is beautiful but being able to transfer these beauties into paintings is the key.

I specialise in traditional Vietnamese lacquer which is becoming a lost art as lacquer in Vietnam becomes more and more commercialised.  Artists now use modernised lacquer materials, which can be produced much more quickly than the traditional but has lost almost all of the original qualities. A traditional piece of lacquer can take up to 6 months or more to complete depending on size and complication.  In a year I only can complete a very few works.

Recently the national TV proposed that I do a documentary about traditional lacquer master work, the documentary mainly was based around my gallery called ThuyKy and my warehouse where everything’s related to the works are kept. The hour long documentary was made and broadcast on Vietnam national TV  recently and was very well received.

See link:

History of Lacquer

Lacquer is the resin of certain trees growing only in East Asia whose characteristics vary: Rhus succedanea in Vietnam, Rhus verniciera in Japan and Melanorrhea laccifera in Cambodia.The Vietnamese Rhus succedanea has been known for a long time as the so’n tree, an indigenous name. In Phu Tho Province, in Northern Vietnam, resins are harvested from the Rhus Succedanea Tree and converted into natural lacquer, which is then applied to the paintings.

Over the centuries, Vietnamese master craftsmen and artists have mastered techniques using lacquer for purpose of decoration ,preservation, lacquer paintings then became Vietnamese specialties.

To paint with lacquer, one must paint in depth what is in the external layer of the picture and paint above what is in the internal layer, then rub it with pumice and the picture will be visible. The strokes must be minute because there is a great deal of sticky matter and a high degree of homogeneity must be achieved in the lacquer, because everything might disappear during the pumicing. The creation is done in several stages, after each of them, the lacquer dries and only then can one start the following stage. A small mistake can be disastrous. Thousands of other difficulties are to be overcome, the working rules must be strictly observed.

Only a true artisan in the lacquering art who has inherited the secrets transmitted from generation to generation can resolve these problems.

The palette of lacquer painting includes only the color of canhgian (cockroach wings), then (black), son (red), silver and gold. Gold and silver must be pure gold and silver, which in the present are difficult to obtain. To prepare the color, mother-of-pearl and egg shell are also used.  If all the complex stages are carefully exectured only then does the master lacquer artist obtain the marvel of the finished product: an artwork of material, color and light bound together in perfect proportion to last for centuries.