100 YEARS OF GIA ĐỊNH FINE ARTS SCHOOL

To celebrate the 100th year of foundation of The Fine Arts School in Gia Định, I would like to introduce a short history about the Printmaking that had been realized concurrently the Lithography workshop at the Sài Gòn Fine Arts University in HCM city …

Through the archives, after the Fine Arts school of Thủ Dầu Một-1901, as well as the one in Biên Hòa - 1907, the College in Gia Đinh had an open policy to welcome new talents to start their training with the institution. It’s new European teaching style, in contradiction with the traditional one that limited the training only for the family, had facilitated the learning process of everyone per its dynamic methods. At the beginning of the 20th century, 0n 1906, many graduates from l’Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris had worked in Saigon, among them some had won the “ Grand Prix de Rome”, and conducted many projects about the development of the city.

According to the College’s archives, since 1913, there was a learning session already about the Lithography workshop, along side with commercial factories that operated outside the College. It confirmed, the theory that such activity had been introduced to Vietnam by the French’s colonization. The institution had created many well-known painters and teachers until the foundation in 1925 of the College of Fine Arts of Đông Dương, Hà Nội, where the majority of students from the south School had been graduated from. Let’s mention Pr. Nguyen Tan Bau who taught about the Lacquer painting, Pr. Nguyen Van Long about the Sculpture, Pr. Dan Hoai Ngoc about the Traditional Decoration. Among their descendants, there was the painter Lê Văn Đệ, founder the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Saigon on 1956. The results after 100 years were unforgettable and valuable to the Saigon School.

On 1972, from the Binh Duong Fine Arts School, we had to take the test to be admitted into the Gia Dinh “École Nationale des Beaux Arts”. By that time, there was no practice on the Lithography at the school, but only the design for printing service made up of Pr. Tu Duyen, responsible for the wood block print, Pr. Hieu De for the illustration , Pr. Ho Van Phong posters presentation in Paris in the 50’s and 60’s etc... Pr. Tran Quang taught his personal techniques of Sérigraphy by creating the chemical emulsion that had an effect on the silk. Such emulsion then was used as stencil in the serigraphy process. The result was the mix between the gelatin and the bi-chromat. The whole process was undergone in a dark room lab or Sticked by pressing the rubylith with acetone on the screen. However, in this period, students had only the notion about the silk screen printing and the practices on how to realize commercial sketches such as folders, or logos. Therefore in that specific period, there was a lack of paintings created from the silk screen painting techniques

I still cannot find a logical explanation about the declining of the Lithograph programs. Was it due to lack of teachers or students? The situation was only improved from 1975 when Pr. Trinh Kim Vinh, a graduate from the Dresden Fine Arts School, a hub among the others in Europe, had decided to re launch the said programs.

(La Toàn Vinh)