Hoi Lebadang (1921-2015) Vietnamese/French, Cast Paper Intaglio Lithograph in Shadow Box. Depicts a highly textured abstract image of a galloping horse in sharp red tones on a bluish background, with a single gold diamond for its eye. Signed with his seal bottom right and numbered 15/250. Intentional jagged edge all around, elevated off the matted background with Lucite and encased in it as well. Torn tag from Circle Fine Art attached to back of shadow box frame.
Condition: Overall excellent.
Size: 33 1/2 x 48 x 3 1/4 in.
Lê Bá Đảng (known professionally as Hoi Lebadang) was born on June 27th, 1921 at Bích La Đông in Quang Tri near Huê, the former imperial capital of Vietnam. His family were upper class, though still considered part of the peasant population, and in early adolescence he began yearning to move to France. He faked his age and applied to the “Indigenous Manpower,” a branch of the French Ministry of Labor. He arrived in France in 1940, where he was almost immediately imprisoned at Baumettes and then forced to work in arms and munitions factories in World War II. He was captured multiple times and escaped from several labor camps throughout the early years of the war, eventually arriving in Toulouse in 1942 where he took courses in painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His talent was immediately apparent and earned him his first freedom in the country, leading to commissions for designing advertisements and posters. In 1948 he earned his diploma and traveled to Paris, where he set up a studio in the rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve. His first solo show was in 1950, the year he married a fellow Vietnamese artist named Myshu and had a son named Fabrice. During the mid to late 50s his reputations grew throughout France and he discovered lithography, constantly inspired to test the boundaries of mediums while capturing stark and moving images of both French life and his memories of the Indochina War and the carnage of the Second World War. Starting in 1960 his popularity spread throughout Europe, with exhibitions in Switzerland, England, Germany, and Norway, culminating in his introduction to the American art community. The Vietnam War had a lasting impact on him, both professionally and personally, and his work began to focus on specific themes including horses, flowers, and boats, often in abstract and tortured landscapes they were striving to escape from, primarily in deep reds and black tones. Some of his most controversial works were sculptures of animals, human profiles, and peace symbols made from the debris of B52 bombers that had been shot down over Vietnam. He was bequeathed French nationality in 1981 after living there for over forty years, and over the next few years produced his magnum opus, “La comedie humaine,” a collection of drawings, watercolors, paintings, etchings, lithographs, collages, and sculptures that was shortly followed by “Espaces,” both of which were heralded as some of the most important bridges between Western and Eastern art in the 20th Century. In 1994 he was appointed “Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres” (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2006 he was present at the inauguration of the Fondation d’Art Lebadang in Hue, Vietnam, a permanent exhibition of more than 400 works representing over 70 years of his work. His final pieces often included softer colors and imagery, particularly involving the Buddha and cosmic forms, with an eye to introspection. Lebadang passed away on March 7th, 2015 in Paris, and to this day his works are found in museums all over the world, highly sought by collectors for his indisputable place in the history of modern art and his immensely eclectic perspective on culture and history.
Overall excellent.
