Vietnam’s long and rich visual arts culture is the subject of this latest comprehensive English language publication titled Vietnam Visual Arts in History Religion and Culture. In accessible language this new publication presents the visual arts in a broad survey across almost a thousand years in a significantly revised and expanded edition Arts of Việt Nam 1009–1945 published in 2013. It brings the latest information from recent archaeological and historical research. It follows the chronological format of the previous book with focus again on the Kinh, the majority ethnic group, historically the inhabitants of the northern river plains and explores the visual culture from the homogenous north to the heterogenous south of the country. The book explains Vietnam’s iconography and belief systems and how they manifest in the visual arts; covers architecture, statuary (stone, clay and woodcore lacquer), metalcraft (bronze, gold, silver), jade and ivory carving, lacquer craft, furniture, inlay work, woodblock printing, painting, and ceramics and their development across the centuries; and includes the visual culture during the colonial period of the 19th-20th centuries. Different techniques used by artisans are explained. An introductory chapter titled Forerunners preceeds eleven chapters devoted to the subject with each chapter bookended with brief historical background and a concluding summary. A short retrospective chapter brings the book to a conclusion. This revised edition is copiously illustrated with more than 300 colour images many of which are new.
About the Author
Art historian Kerry Nguyễn-Long was born and educated in Tasmania, Australia. During the years of her tertiary education, she met and married fellow student, Nguyễn Kim Long, a Colombo Plan Scholarship recipient from Vietnam and it was through this connection she developed an interest in Vietnam. Married life took the family to Canberra, Papua New Guinea, and eventually the Philippines, where they lived for twenty years. As a member of The Oriental Ceramic Society of the Philippines she had access to and studied Vietnamese ceramics exported to the Philippines in the 14th to 15th centuries and from that point she broadened the scope of her research. Her writings on the visual culture of Vietnam have appeared in books, arts magazines, and museum journals. She is an author, co-author, and a contributor to books. She is currently a contributing editor of Arts of Asia international magazine published in Hong Kong.