Artwork preservation worries experts

Hanoi (VNA/VNS) - Much of Vietnam's best artwork is at risk of deterioration if
museums and exhibition halls do not improve storage conditions and restoration
work, say artists and experts.

Over the last five years, the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum has spent billions
of dong buying art and a source from the museum said the institution would spend
around 5 billion VND (286,900 USD) this year on war paintings by southern artists.

Yet the museum does not have current plans to invest in preservation even though
about 20 percent of stored paintings are at risk of damage due to substandard
facilities, said the source.

Painter Phan Trong Van said that not a single domestic art institute offered
academic training in art restoration.

Vietnam sent a number of artists to Eastern Europe to study art restoration in
the 1960's and 1970's but most quit the subject, often turning to painting or
drawing. Some had to look for more lucrative professions.

"Not every artist who draws or paints understands restoration work, but one
should spend at least three years drawing to get the experience necessary for
restoration." Van said.

He said that museums have not invest in restoration, exhibitions or publicity about
their purchased works, comparing it to a family buying a fridge without having the
money to pay for the electricity to run it.
"This is one of the reasons why many art works, especially those which
museums throughout the country collected more than ten years ago, have
been seriously damaged," he said.

There are some self-taught restorers in HCM City , Hanoi and Hue , many of
whom have successfully restored paintings on "do" (Poonah paper) and lacquer work.

Luu Quoc Binh, who has a collection of 257 oil on canvas paintings, 190 water colour
paintings and many sketches by painter Luu Cong Nhan(1929-2007), said he would like
to hold a public exhibit of the work. But Binh is worried about damage; Nhan was a
master of "one stroke" water-colour paintings, which would be very difficult to
restore, said Binh.

Binh said that artists themselves can help extend the life-span of their works by
carefully processing materials before and during the drawing process.

Painter Pham Dang Tri, for example, took great care in preparing materials for his
paintings on silk and poonah paper.

"If a single drop of water fell onto the surface of the poonah paper, which he
had spent a whole month preparing, Tri would throw the (Poonah paper) sheet
away," Binh said," aading that's why many of Tri's paintings are still in good
conditions.-Enditem