The painting was completed in 1963, nine years after the Dien Bien Phu Victory. The lacquer painting features the Party admission ceremony which took place on the Dien Bien Phu battlefield, which was important event for each solider.
The figures in the painting are divided into three groups—one major group and two auxiliary groups. The figures in the major group stand solemnly for their Party membership induction, surrounded by hardship and danger. Especially important is the sacred image of a wounded soldier is inducted as a Party member, knowing he might die soon after. The detail is a piece of pictorial language that makes the image of the soldiers persuasive and epic. Nguyen Sang found and enhanced the details that take modest images and turn them into great ones.
He used a combat trench as the background of his painting. The painter highlighted the chaos of combat through the image of another solider going hastily to the battle’s background. Additionally, the image of a solider carrying a wounded comrade on his back on the left side of the picture reflects the fierce battle that is raging outside of the trench.
The colour scheme of the painting features the interaction of brown and yellow earth tones with red highlights which symbolise the fighting spirit and pride of the Dien Bien soldiers as they are inducted as Party members. For a long time, red lacquer trimmed with gold has been used in lacquer paintings as part of a common decorative language. But Sang’s strong style created an honest image of the Dien Bien soldiers, who also represent the Vietnamese people. Viewers feel this immediately when they look at the painting.
Many other painters have dealt with the same topic, including Nguyen Duc Nung in his painting ‘Party admission in prison’ and Le Quoc Loc with his lacquer painting ‘From the darkness’, which depicts a simple house where communists solemnly take their oaths beneath a Vietnamese flag. Of all these paintings, the one of soldiers on the Dien Bien Phu battlefield being sworn in at the height of the battle is the most memorable.
The painting represented the artistic style of painter Nguyen Sang, who was the leading artist of Vietnamese fine arts. The work is also evidence of creativity in Vietnamese lacquer art. The painting is considered an epic representation of Vietnamese revolutionary spirit.
| Painter Nguyen Sang (1923-1988) was born in My Tho district, Tien Giang province. He graduated from Gia Dịnh Secondary School of the Decorative Arts and the Indochina College of Fine Arts. He has been featured at many exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad. He received the Ho Chi Minh City Literature and Art Award in 1996. Nguyen Sang's lacquer painting ‘Party admission ceremony in Dien Bien Phu’ was recognised as a national treasure on December 30, 2013. |
