Lê Quốc Lộc Biography

First Generation Artist: École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine French Influenced

Lê Quốc Lộc was born in Tuấn Quang hamlet in Phùng Hưng Commune, Khoái Châu District, Hưng Yên Province in 1918. He studied in the lacquer department of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine from 1936, specializing in lacquer and ceramic painting. He graduated with a diploma in 1942. From August 1945, during the First Indochina War, Lộc joined the Việt Minh. Lộc had a solo exhibition in 1947.¹

From 1945 to 1946 Lộc worked at the Department of Propaganda in North Vietnam. Then, Lộc was put in charge of the Painting Department at the Department of Propaganda of Military Zone 3 from 1947 to 1954. In the period between 1955 and 1959, Lộc worked at the Vietnam Arts and Crafts Association, becoming a member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association in 1957.

Between 1959 and 1967 Lộc was made the deputy director of the Gia Đinh School of Applied Arts in South Vietnam. During his tenure, Lộc hugely contributed to the training of young artists in the fields of lacquer and ceramic painting. In 1968, Lộc moved back to Hanoi to work at the Vietnam Fine Arts Association until 1978.²

Lộc’s works, The Feast in a Pagoda (lacquer, 1939), Twilight Moment (lacquer, 1961) and From Obscurity (lacquer, 1982), have been added to the permanent collection of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum.

Lộc won the gold medal at an exhibition in Leipzig in 1973. He also won second prize at an exhibition in Germany in 1973, and first prize in 1978.

In 1987, Lộc passed away in Hanoi. After his death Lộc was posthumously awarded the Hồ Chí Minh Prize for Literature and Art in 2000 for his works: The Old (Lacquer, 1957), The Light Comes (Lacquer) 1956), Resistance to Desert (Lacquer, 1958), Peace to Hold (Lacquer, 1962) and From the Dark (Lacquer, 1982).

Lộc had seven children, many of whom became artists themselves, including the artist Lê Kim Mỹ and painter Lê Trí Dũng.

LÊ QUỐC LỘC GALLERY

Publications

Editions: Thế Giới, 100 Peintres et Sculpteurs Vietnamiens du 20th Siecle, 1996, LIKSIN, Hồ Chí Minh

Hội Mỹ Thuật Việt Nam, Nghệ sĩ tạo hình Việt Nam hiện đại (Ký Hệu Hội Viên), 2009, Nhà Xuất Bản Mỹ Thuật, Hà Nội

Collections

National Gallery, Singapore

Vietnam Fine Art Museum, Hà Nội

Overseas collections

Exhibitions³

1943 – Special price of the Exhibition organized by the “Salon Unique”

1947 – Solo exhibition

1951 – Second Prize in Painting Exhibition

1955 – Second Runner-up prize for the National Exhibition of Fine Arts

1958 – Second Runner-up prize for the National Exhibition of Fine Arts

1960 – First prize National Exhibition of Fine Arts

1962 – Second Runner-up prize for the National Exhibition of Fine Arts

1973 – Gold Medal at the Leipzig Fair Exhibition

1974 – Second prize at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition organized in the German Democratic Republic

1978 – First prize at the Crafts Fair in Erkfourg, German Democratic Republic

2000 – Ho Chi Minh Award for Art Literature, 2nd edition.

Official Roles

1959 and 1967 – Deputy Director of the School of Applied Arts of Gia Đinh

1966 onwards – Member of the Executive Board of the Vietnam Folk Literature Association, Term I

1968-1978 – Worked at the Vietnam Fine Arts Association

1968-1983 – Member of the Executive Board, Member of the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association

1983-1989 – Member of the Art Council of Decoration II

Awards⁴

Second Class Order of Resistance Medal by the Communist Party of Vietnam

State of Vietnam and the Order of Resistance

Medal for the cause of Vietnamese Arts and Letters

Medal for the cause of Vietnamese Art.

2000 – Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Art

1. Lê Quốc Lộc biography from independent research by Witness Collection.
2. Painter Le Quoc Loc (1918 – 1987), Vietnam Fine Arts Association Website. Visited 12 March 2018.
3. Biography of Artist Lê Quốc Lộc, Người Nổi Tiếng (Famous People). Visited 12 March 2018.
4. Editions: Thế Giới, 100 Peintres et Sculpteurs Vietnamiens du 20th Siecle, 1996, LIKSIN, Hồ Chí Minh.