Lê Bá Đảng

Lê là họ; Bá là tên đệm và Đảng là tên - là một danh họa, nghệ sĩ điêu khắc lừng danh người Pháp gốc Việt, sinh ngày 27 tháng 6 năm 1921, ở làng Bích La Đông (huyện Triệu Phong, tỉnh Quảng Trị, gần Thành phố Huế, kinh đô xưa của nước Việt Nam).  Ông qua đời ngày 7 tháng 3 năm 2015 tại Paris, hưởng thọ 94 tuổi.

Ông đã dành cả phần lớn cuộc đời của mình tại Pháp và một khoảng thời gian tại Hoa Kỳ và Nhật Bản.

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1921

Lê Bá Đảng was born on 27 June 1921 at Bích La Đông, (in Quảng Trị, near Huế).

1942 – 1948

Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Toulouse, France.

1950 – 1958

In 1950, he met Myshu, born Micheline Nguyen Hai in the Havre, who was to become his wife.
Bookshop-Gallery of the Globe (Librairie-galerie du Globe), Paris, France.
Galerie de l’Odéon, Paris, France.
Galerie Au Seuil Etroit, Paris, France.
Galerie Cézanne, Cannes, France.
Château de la Napoule, La Napoule, France.

1960 – 1963

Galerie Au Seuil Etroit, Paris, France.
Galerie Sources, Aix-en-Provence, France.
Galerie Ina Fuchs, Dusseldorf, Germany.
Galerie Mignon-Massart, Nantes, France.
Galerie Frost and Reed à Londres, England.
Galerie Leandro à Lausanne, Switzerland.

1964 – 1967

1964. Eight horses (Huit Chevaux), his first portfolio done in relief, without colours nor ink, on the poems and calligraphy of Chou Ling.
1966. First exhibition dedicated to his work in the United States at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Newman Contemporary Art Gallery, Philadelphia, United States.
1967. Portfolio of lithographs Nature Prays without Words (La nature prie sans paroles) after a poem of Lao Tzu.

1970

Series of paintings Paysage indomptable (Indomitable Landscape) on the theme of the Viêt Nam War.

1972 – 1976

Galerie Fontaine, Paris, France.
Frost and Reed Gallery, Londres, England.
1974. He met John « Jack » Solomon, the president of Circle Fine Art Corporation, who, at that time, directed several art galleries throughout the United States.
1975. Kuntsmesse de Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Circle Galleries : New-York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, United States.
Wonderbank Gallery, Frankfort, Germany.

1977 – 1978

1977. Galerie Pierre Hautot, Paris, France.
Portfolio Fantaisies Suite (Suite of Fantasies).
Portfolio Fleurs Série (Series of Flowers).
1978. Set and costumes of the opera My Chau – Trong Thuy by Nguyễn Thiên Đạo, Opéra de Paris, Paris, France.
Lebadangraphy, a set of serigraphs using a « technique of gilding ».

1980

Death of his son Touty. He created a grave of stainless steel whose surface reflects the surrounding nature, the trees and the sky.
Lebadang started working on La comédie humaine (The Human Comedy) referring to the work of Honoré de Balzac and representing his own view of the human condition.

1981 – 1986

Circle Galleries : Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New-York, Pittsburg, San Diego, San Jose, Northbrook, Miami, Saint Louis, New-Orleans, Seattle, United States.
Clayton Art Gallery, Clayton, United States.
Exposition collective Pâte de verre – Sculpture « Cartel L.T.D & Daum-France », New-York, United States.
The Owl Gallery, San Francisco – Walton Street Gallery, Chicago – Gallery in the Square, Boston – Carolyn Summers Gallery, New-Orleans – Altamonte, Springs – Cherry Creek Gallery of Fine Art, Denver – The Old Olive Tree Gallery, Scottsdale – Pavilion Gallery, Portland – Ludeke Gallery, Cincinnati – Pioneer Square Gallery, Seattle – Congress Square Gallery, Portland, ÉtUnited States.

1984 – 1985

1984. Art to Wear, Circle Gallery, Trump Tower, New-York, United States.
1985. He started on what was undoubtedly to be his major work, the series of Espaces (Spaces). There are works on paper combining various techniques by using collage and superimposition, mid way between sculptures and bas-relief, like a synthesis reaching beyond these two forms of expression.

1987

Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, Ashiya, Japan.
Relief engravings with embossed technique on paper which he included under the title Au-delà du graphisme (Beyond the Graphic).

1989 – 1994

1989. Prize of « The International Institute of Saint-Louis », Saint-Louis, United States.
1990.Tokyo International Art Expo, 1990 », Tokyo, Japan.
Galerie 4 pieces, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobé, Ashiya, Japan.
Kyoto Art Expo, Kyoto, Japan.
1991. He was commissioned to release the academician’s sword for professor Jacques Ruffié in collaboration with the smelter Pascal Arthus-Bertrand, Paris, France.
Exhibition « Champêtre », Bích La Đông, Viêt Nam.
He was nominated Honorary Citizen of « The City of New Orleans » on 13 April 1991, United States.
1994. In Paris on 16 June 1994 Lebadang 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, Jacques Toubon.

1995 – 1996

Park West Gallery, Detroit-Southfield, United States.
Herburger Gallery, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Ostendoff Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany.
Birla Academy of Arts and Culture, Calcutta, India.

1997 – 2002

Lebadang created a huge Espace (Space) of 300 m² by more than 10m in the « Carrière de Lumières » (Quarry of Lights), Baux-de-Provence, France.

2002 – 2005

2002. After a journey to Angkor Vat, he began the Bouddha (Buddha) series.
Hô Chi Minh Museum, Hô Chi Minh-Ville, Viêt Nam.
International Festival of Huế, Huế, Viêt Nam.
2003. Galerie VRG, Paris, France.
2004. Galerie Hoa Mai, Paris, France.
2004 – 2005. Galerie Bijutsu Sekai, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan.

2006

Inauguration, in the presence of the artist, of the Fondation d’Art Lebadang (Lebadang Art Foundation) in Huế, Viêt Nam. The Foundation was established with the support of the authorities of the city of Huế and of the province of Thừa Thiên-Huế. It permanently keeps and exhibits more than 400 works by the artist representing more than 70 years of creative work.
The Cosmic Family series contains his latest works.

2010 – 2014

2010. International Festival of Huế, Huế, Viêt Nam.
His last painting (a triptych of 130 x 291 cm) continues the theme of the Cosmic Family.
2011. Exhibition War at the Vietnam National Museum of History of Hànôi, Hànôi, Viêt Nam.
2012. Library of the National Centre of Art and Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
2014. Following an original model by Lebadang, a stele in memory of the 20 000 Vietnamese workers requisitioned by France during the Second World War was inaugurated on 5 October 2014 at Salin-de-Giraud in the Camargue.

2015

Lebadang passes away on 7 March 2015 in Paris, at the age of 94. The funeral ceremony took place under the dome of the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Several ceremonies were to be held in Vietnam, in his native village Bích La Đông and at the Lebadang Art Foundation in Huế.
Lê Bá Đảng – Từ Bích La Đông đến Paris, film de Đặng Nhật Minh (Projection in Huế and at the cinema La Clef in Paris on 19 September).

2016

Fukuoka International Film Festival 2016 – Focus on Asia – 15/9 – 25/9, Japon. Lê Bá Đảng – From Bích La Đông to Paris, Closing in on the World of Lebadang, 2015, Viêt Nam, 22mn, film de Đặng Nhật Minh.
From 2 November 2016 to 5 March 2017, twenty works by Lebadang were exhibited amongst the recent acquisitions of the Cernuschi Museum, highlighting the donation made by Myshu Lebadang to the museum’s collection.

2018

Publication of the book Genesis, a set of 46 drawings made in Indian ink in the 1960s represents the evolution of species according to Lebadang.

2019

On April 21, 2019 was held the Opening of « Lebadang Memory Space » à Kim Sơn, near Huế, a memory and an exhibition space which presents a private collection.

Publication in November 2019 of the first monograph devoted to the artist.

Luc HO​

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