THE SACRED AND THE SECULAR

Drawing upon the Buddhist narrative of Māra’s temptation, Le Pho’s L’illumination de Bouddha (1947) and Vu Cao Dam’s Bouddha (1954) articulate two distinct approaches to the reconfiguration of religious imagery in modern Vietnamese painting.

Their differences extend beyond medium, composition, and palette to the ways in which each artist negotiates the relationship between the sacred and the secular. Considered alongside an early Gandharan relief and an archival photograph dating to circa 1950, the works invite a closer examination of iconography, pictorial transformation, and the historical lives of artworks.

Le Pho’s L’illumination de Bouddha is currently on view in Echoes of Tonkin: Vietnamese Modern Art at DE SARTHE @desarthegallery , Hong Kong, through 21 November 2026.