Art plays a significant role in strengthening ties between nations. It helps to bind people from different backgrounds and nationalities together. It is one of the strongest forces to bring harmony, peace, and beauty among people,” says Sanjeev Bhargava, founder-director of Seher. Vietnamese art, just like its Indian counterpart, has a long and rich history. With an aim to propagate cultural ties between the two nations, Seher, in collaboration with the Embassy of Vietnam and India International Centre, recently organised a daylong Vietnam-India Artists’ Camp.
The result of the collaboration between the 10 Vietnamese artists and their India counterparts was a panorama of history told through images. The artists mainly used oil and water colours as a medium for their works, “Art is one of the means to link people to each other in the shortest way,” Vietnamese artist Nguyen Xuan Nghi says.
The earliest examples of Vietnamese art date back as far as the Stone Age; around 8,000 BCE. Likewise, the origin of Indian art is traced to pre-historic Hominid settlements in the 3rd millennium BC. On its way to modern times, Indian art was subject to inevitable cultural exposure and religious influences such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam. In the same fashion, with the millennium of Chinese domination of Asia starting in the second century BC, Vietnamese art absorbed many artistic influences from its powerful neighbour, which would continue even after Vietnam’s independence from China in 10th century AD.
However, its art retained distinctive national characteristics. By the 19th century, the influence of French art took hold in Vietnamese aesthetic expression, and had a large role in the birth of modern Vietnamese art.
For Indian artist Gitanjali Sanon the Seher camp showed that humanity can exist together in joy and also evolve together. Fellow Indian Nin Taneja shares, “Working with various artists, each with their own style was an experience in itself. We need co-existence. And this was evident in the camp where artists from different cultures and backgrounds came together for one purpose—to create beauty.”
Vietnamese Artists
Dao Thi Lien Huong, Bui Hiru Hung, Nguyen Xuan Nghi, Ngo Ba Thao, Chu Anh Phuong, Le The Anh, Le Dirc Tung, Doan Van Duc, Ngo Thi Binh Nhi, Nguyen Tien Hung
Indian Counterparts
Tanmoy Samanta, Nupur Kundu, Harshvardhan Swaminathan, Shalina Vichitra, Manish Pushkale, Akhilesh Yadav, Laishram Meena Devi, Kanchan Chander, Gitanjali Sanon, Nin Taneja, Mahula Ghosh and Ranjeeta Kant