A goateed figure in a simple bush jacket, Ho Chi Minh
cultivated the image of a humble and benign "Uncle Ho." Born in 1890 in Central Vietnam and named
Nguyen Sinh Cung, in the early 1940s he changed his name to Ho Chi Minh, or He
Who Enlightens. Today his image remains ubiquitous in Vietnam, smiling down
affectionately from the thousands of official portraits in the country’s pubic
squares and private spaces.
In 1957 Trung Chin, the Minister of Information for the
Northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, paraphrased the well-known
Leninist dogma, declaring, 'Art is only real art if it becomes propaganda'.
Over the ...
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In 1957 Trung Chin, the Minister of Information for the
Northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, paraphrased the well-known
Leninist dogma, declaring, 'Art is only real art if it becomes propaganda'.
Over the next three decades, as the country fought against the French, the
Americans and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese ‘art force’ played an
essential part in relaying the government’s message to a difficult to reach
population. Amid bombing campaigns and land battles, the artists cycled their
posters to villages across Vietnam. Despite these brutal conditions they
created works of striking originality, pieces that combined 1960s Soviet art
with Vietnam’s own folk art traditions.
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