This stoneware female figure was found in the Fifteenth Century shipwreck about 72 meters off Cu Lao Cham Island, which was investigated from 1997 to 1999. Hoi An, Quang Nam Province National Museum of Vietnamese History, Hanoi.
:Wrapped in the fog of war for most of the Twentieth Century, Viet Nam has moved on. Today, it is a highly industrialized nation, a tourist destination, a foodie heaven. Yet, for many, Viet Nam's place in the world — and in the world of art — is still a mystery.
That will change somewhat over the course of the coming months as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) hosts the first American survey exhibition of Vietnamese art and culture. "Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea" runs from September 13 through January 3. It then travels to New York's Asia Society for an extended run.
This landmark exhibit was 2,000 years in the making and 20 years in the planning. Planning began in 1988, when Dr Nancy Tingley, Southeast Asian scholar, who at the time was associated with the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, seized an opportunity to make a cultural visit to Viet Nam. What she and her colleagues encountered was a country still in recovery. Beyond that, however, they viewed remarkable treasures that reflected the diverse and rich culture of the nation.
Tingley is credited with evolving the notion of an American exhibit comprising loans from Viet Nam museums long before diplomatic relations with the United States had been "normalized." "What if" became the byword in approaching Vietnamese museum directors.
Recalling those early talks, Tingley said, "The museum administrators were enthusiastic but cautious." As it turned out, little was accomplished, as nothing could be ventured until some time in the distant future when, and if, the United States and Viet Nam normalized relations.
Seven years passed before relations between the two countries were officially reinstated. Encouraged, Tingley struggled to organize the show at that time, but it soon became clear, she said, "that it was not going to happen. So we put it on the shelf."
Probably from the Fifth Century, this stone carving of a female deity resides in the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture.
Around 2001 or 2002 (Tingley is not sure of the exact date), the Asia Society visited Hanoi and met with the minister of culture. By then, enough had changed that "what if" became "when, where, how."
Over the years, there had been renewed interest, research and scholarship on the cultural history of Viet Nam. Much of the new scholarship is reflected in the approximately 110 artifacts on view at MFAH dating from the First Millennium BC through the Seventeenth Century. In-depth essays by Andreas Reinecke, Pierre-Yves Manguin, Kerry Nguyen-Long and Nguyen Dinh Chien in the accompanying catalog offer the longed-for background one wants to read after viewing the objects.
Given its pivotal geographic position, Viet Nam, as long ago as 1,400 years, was a sort of maritime Silk Road stop. Its more than 2,000 miles of coastline extends from the Hong (Red) River delta near modern Hanoi to the port of Ca Mau in the Mekong Delta of the south. From there, traders could go farther south to Indonesia, east toward the Philippines, west into the Gulf of Thailand or north toward Cambodia and Laos.
Ultimately, Viet Nam became a waypoint for ships traveling from Europe to the Orient. The fierce monsoons often made it impossible for ships in port to set out again. Foreign traders and sailors often found themselves bound to Viet Nam for up to six months at a stretch.
