Vietnam censors Hanoi artist
The Vietnamese government struck another blow
against artistic freedom on December 15, when officials
ordered local artist Le Quang Ha to remove seven
paintings from his solo exhibition in Hanoi. The
38-year-old artist--known for vivid oil portraits of
grimacing figures enveloped by brutality or
powerlessness--had waited two years for official
permission to hold the exhibition, which formally
opened on December 16 at the Vietnam Fine Arts
Museum. At the last minute, however, representatives
from the Ministry of Culture and Information deemed
that seven of the 23 paintings were "not in accordance
with Vietnam's customs and perspective on art," as
stated in a handwritten letter. Turning an eye toward the
war in Afghanistan, one of the banned paintings showed
a man in a sheikh's headdress made from an American
flag, with a woman crawling between his legs. The artist
bristled at warnings that his work is too graphic. "I want
to criticize hypocrisy, and make my audience feel
shocked at the sight of violence," says Ha. "If they can
feel that, then I have succeeded."
The Far Eastern Economic Review - December 20, 2001.
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