Vietnam University of Fine Arts is an art school in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was established under the French rule in 1925. The university has trained many of Vietnam’s leading artists and each year it participates in many cultural exchanges with sister institutions overseas.
History
The long and distinguished history of the Hanoi University of Fine Art may be traced back to the colonial École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine which trained successive generations of Vietnamese students — and a smaller number of students from Cambodia and Laos — in the western art tradition, laying the essential groundwork for the development of a distinctive Vietnamese style of modern art. The École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi was the predecessor of the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. The école was established by the French colonial government, along similar lines to the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts d’Alger, established 1843, and École des Beaux-Arts de Tunis, established 1923. The school was for all students who were then known to the French as Indochinese — including Tonkinese, Annamese, Cochin Chinese, Khmer, and Lao — although inevitably most students were drawn from Hanoi itself. The co-founders are usually credited as the first director Victor Tardieu and the Vietnamese artist Nam Sơn. Tardieu was succeeded by the sculptor Évariste Jonchère who was director from 1938 to 1945. French artists who were teachers at school and other art schools in the south of Vietnam include several winners of the Prix d'Indochine, since from 1925 winning the prize included a year teaching at the school. Teachers included Joseph Inguimberty, and Alix Aymé, wife of the deputy commander of the French forces.
Alumni of the '''École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine (1925-45)'''
The college was taken over by the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam after the August Revolution of 1945. When the struggle against the French intensified in 1950, the college was moved to Đại Từ, Thai Nguyen in the Viet Bac Resistance Zone, under the direction of painter Tô Ngọc Vân. In 1954 professors and students returned to Hanoi where, in 1957, a new Hanoi College of Fine Art was established under the direction of painter Tran Van Can. In 1981 this institution became the Hanoi University of Fine Art. The university offers five-year Bachelor of Fine Art programmes and two-year full-time or three-year part-time Master of Arts programmes in Painting, Graphic Art and Sculpture, and four-year Bachelor of Fine Art Education programmes.
