Ancient Vietnam exhibition opens in New York

An exhibition themed “Arts of Ancient Vietnam: From River Plain to Open Sea” opened at the Asia Society in New York on February 1.
The exhibition introduces new scholarship on the history of Vietnamese art, with approximately 110 objects dating from the first millennium BCE through the 17th century on rare loan from ten leading Vietnamese museums.
The exhibition represents the first time these works have been exhibited in the US and, for many of the objects, the first time they have traveled outside of Vietnam. Throughout its long history, Vietnam served as a central hub for trade routes that connected the regions of Asia and the west with travelers and merchants traversing its long open plains. Trade vessels from as far as India and Rome found safe haven in its harbors. Objects in the exhibition illustrate the rich and complex patterns of trade and cultural exchange in southern, central and northern Viet Nam, and the varied influences of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Japan, China, Rome and even northern Europe.
Between now and May, when the exhibition closes, the Asian Society will organise numerous events relating to Vietnamese society and culture.
Highlights of the exhibition include ritual bronzes, terracotta burial wares, fine gold jewelry, large-scale Hindu and Buddhist sculptures and ornaments made of jade, lapis lazuli, crystal and carnelian.
The exhibition is co-organized by Asia Society, New York and the MFAH. Independent scholar Dr. Nancy Tingley is curator of the exhibition.
When Dr. Tingley first traveled to Viet Nam in the 1980s with the intention of organizing an exhibition, the United States and Viet Nam had yet to normalize relations following the War. Realizing the exhibition was impossible at that time, Tingley kept at her research. As U.S.-Vietnamese cooperation grew and the relationship was strengthened, opportunities emerged for collaboration on the project. Over twenty years later, the exhibition is finally a reality.
Works are on loan from ten leading Vietnamese museums including the National Museum of Vietnamese History in Ha Noi and the Museum of Vietnamese History in Ho Chi Minh City.
The exhibition guides the viewer through critical periods in the region’s history, beginning with ancient burial items from the fifth century BCE, continuing with intricate jewelry and religious statues of the first millennium and culminating with the fine ceramics of the seventeenth century.
“Asia Society gratefully acknowledges Viet Nam’s Ministry of Culture and our colleagues in Vietnamese museums for their collaboration on this important project,” said Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu. “Having worked with Vietnamese officials, museums and Dr. Tingley for years, it is extremely gratifying to see the exhibition come to fruition, and to be working with our colleagues at MFAH on the exhibition’s presentation.”
“Most audiences are familiar with Vietnamese history of the twentieth century but, for many, this exhibition provides the first opportunity to explore the richness of Vietnamese art in its deserved depth,” said MFAH director Dr. Peter C. Marzio. “We are extremely pleased to work with our colleagues in Viet Nam and at Asia Society to share these great treasures with U.S. audiences for the first time.”
“The works in this exhibition are of truly global significance, and evidence a shared history that predates colonialism by several thousand years,” said Dr. Tingley. “Unfortunately, modern scholarship and archaeological research were interrupted and delayed by the tumultuous decades of the twentieth century. After working for over two decades to bring this exhibition to fruition, we are very excited to bring these works to American audiences.”
Addressing the exhibition’s opening ceremony, Melissa Chiu, Museum Director of the Asian Society, said Americans usually think of the US War in Vietnam when thinking about the country. The exhibition will introduce Americans to another aspect of Vietnamese culture.
The Chairwoman of the Asian Society in New York, Vishakha Desai, said that her Society has actively engaged in promoting Vietnamese culture to the US. She and other Society officials came to Vietnam before the US normalized its relations with Vietnam to seek an opportunity to organise the exhibition.
Vu Quoc Hien, Deputy Director of the Vietnam History Museum, said that the artefacts displayed at the exhibition show how much the Dong Son, Sa Huynh and Oc Eo civilizations were affected by foreign culture.
Bui The Giang, Ambassador and Deputy Head of the Representative Delegation of Vietnam to the United Nations, says the exhibition is all the more timely as Vietnam has just concluded its term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and is now assuming ASEAN chair. He believes the exhibition will strengthen mutual understanding between the US and Vietnam.
The exhibition is divided into four roughly chronological sections, which explore the art of the period’s most prominent civilizations: Early Cultures: Dong Son and Sa Huynh (1st millennium BCE–2nd century CE) will explore Viet Nam’s first “Golden Age,” which was dominated by two now legendary civilizations, the Sa Huynh in central and south Viet Nam and their contemporaries in the north, the Dong Son. Particular highlights of this section are the burial wares of the Sa Huynh people, who entombed their dead in large upright jars, the bodies positioned in crouched postures with precious offerings, weapons and smaller pottery vessels enclosed. This rare practice was not shared by the Dong Son culture in the north, which is better known for its ornamental bronze drums. Other highlights from this exhibition section include iron axes, jewelry, beads of semiprecious stones, glass and gold.
Fu Nan in the Mekong River Delta (1st–5th century CE) examines the great first-millennium civilization known as Fu Nan, which comprised several major cities connected by an advanced network of canals across southern Viet Nam and into Cambodia. The exhibition will focus on the walled city of Oc Eo, one of the civilization’s wealthiest, located at the crossroads of trade routes linking the Roman, Indian and Chinese empires. The city was a main center of manufacture, notable for its superior-quality gold jewelry inset with semi-precious and precious stones. The jewelry of Oc Eo is presented alongside imported goods from Rome, India and China from the same period.
Champa Ports of Call (5th–15th century) explores the art of the seafaring Cham people, whose central coastal kingdoms became the locus of power in the sixth century CE. The exhibition features Cham ceramics, metalwork and sculpture, which demonstrate artistic and cultural exchange between coastal Viet Nam, Indonesia, the Philippine kingdom of Butuan and other regions of Southeast Asia and India.
Trade and Exchange in Hoi An (16th–18th century) explores the city of Hoi An, which served as one of Southeast Asia’s primary international ports for two centuries. Located in central Viet Nam about 18 miles from modern Da Nang, Hoi An was the center of the ceramic trade between China, Japan and Europe. The exhibition will present ceramic wares produced in northern and central Viet Nam, and will explore the influence of Japanese, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese traders who settled in Hoi An during the period. A group of objects recovered from a fifteenth-century shipwreck are displayed in this section of the exhibition.