Paysage indomptable

Lebadang, né en 1921 à Vietnam ou Việt Nam, décédé en 2015 à Paris

1972
Encre noire, Peinture à l'huile
Peinture
Ecrit au revers : "Phong cảnh bất khuất" ("paysage indomptable"); Angle inférieur droit : sceau peint et signature "Lebadang" / Au revers de la toile : inscription "Paysage indomptable, Cannes 1972 Lebadang".
Don manuel : Lebadang, Myshu

M.C. 2015-22

Lebadang (Lê Bá Đảng 黎白璗), a French artist of Vietnamese origin who settled in France at the age of 18, retained a strong sense of cultural and affective connection with his native land, despite the distance. In 1969, the war between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam was raging. President Nixon, who had been elected in January that year, promised to withdraw his troops. The violence was at its height, relayed for the first time by a flood of shocking images, kindling a protest movement. In Paris, Lebadang followed the unfolding conflict from a distance. It was 30 years since he had left his native country ravaged by the war of independence against France, and now by this fratricidal war. In 1972, peace negotiations held in Paris progressed and led to the signature of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973.
During this pivotal period of hope and despair, Lebadang expressed his torn emotions in a series of paintings entitled Paysage indomptable (Indomitable Landscape) (1969 – 1973). A streak of red runs through a chaotic natural landscape with sheer, black cliffs, aggressive swirls and hostile splatterings. The only note of colour, like a fine but sharp line of hope, it evokes the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a secret route crossing the impenetrable mountains from north to south, through which the supplies of the communist troops passed. The runny black ink was applied extremely rapidly to the coated surface of the canvas. The vigorous strokes evoke Oriental calligraphic art, while the absence of motif in favour of the expressive stroke and the creative process reflects Lebadang's immersion in the artistic culture of his time.