The Saigon Fine Arts Museum is housed in three buildings adjacent to each other. These buildings were designed by a French architect in 1929 and they display a mix of Vietnamese and European styles. Within the walls one finds many works of art from Vietnamese artists. The styles and materials are wide ranging. There are pencil drawings, oil paintings, lacquer paintings paintings on silk and water colors. The styles range from combat scenes to impressionist styles, from abstract to post modern works. There were a bunch of larger sculptures in the outside courtyard. While I was taking pictures of then a guard came by and told me no pictures. Phone photos are OK but not a standalone camera, go figure. The Lunar New Year picture seekers were here in force, more so than at the zoo! We had to navigate around them time and time again. We loved the art. You can see it for yourselves as you scroll down.
We tried the downstairs buffet for our breakfast today. Here is the croissant server
Dim sum dumplings!
Fresh eggs and not so fresh eggs
Yhey are making it easy to steal a sandwich for lunch. We have not paid for a meal yet, thanks to the club access
Haute cuisine
A chocolate fountain and doughnuts on the rack!
The men's room
Only the fanciest of ladies
Warning: mustache hairs may be found in you eggs
How much ice is lost to melting while the ice delivery scooter sits in traffic?
Nearly every large building has some sore of Lunar New Year display
Vietnam has embraced the art deco look
Beautiful colonial look to the buildings
A random lantern display
The gates to the art museum
A grand entrance
Pointy!
A city scape
Posing for the picture
Uncle Ho, as in Ho Chi Minh
It is hard to make out but the turtle at this archers feet is handing him an arrow
Family unit
Flower bloom
The third building, maybe it was the Mother In Law's wing
Trumpeter
The elevator gate
Mind expansion
Inuit like
Tall ceilings with ornamental ironwork
She is loading her pipe
A very colorful street scene
One of many delightful tile designs in the buildings
Combat / Resistance Art
The tools used to make lacquer paintings
The central courtyard on the ground level was a popular spot for the photo takers
So many colors!
That is some eye contact
The first stamps ever to have Vietnam written on them came out in 1949
A face looming out of the dark
Galleries were devoted to individual artists.
This artist was a great sculpturer
Uncle Ho in stone
Peek a boo!
Girl in repose
Weary
This is very French, it reminds me of Toulouse-Lautrec
Silk is painted with dye to get this picture
Love the pig tails
Baby on board
Mountain girl, this painting is on silk by Le Thi Luu
Le Thi Luu painted these in the 1980's
Mad Man!
Uncle Ho Goes Fishing at Viet Bac War Zone is the actual title
The stained glass around the windows were delightful
Great light fixtures
Another great set of tiles
Most inspired
Yoga sculpture as we are heading over to building #2
This makes me think the images are of ghosts or of the spirits of the "Teammate"
Mr. Saxophone
Let the sleeping dog lie
A funky cartoon
Belly rubs, please
A set of four rooms devoted to the art by Le Ba Dang
Very versatile
The trendy shot
A footprint
The rooms themselves were modified to accentuate the art displayed within them
Le Ba Dang himself
This sculpture was named "Sediment"
More abstract works here. Despite multiple signs saying to not touch, there was a group strumming this piece like it was a harp
These are reminding me of contemporary Aboriginal Australian works
A wandering walkabout
I would swear I saw a similar piece in Denmark
They thought she looked like the subject in the painting which she kind of does
We all wear masks, but which one is the astist?
Master of the bulls
Babe the Blue Ox
