Ca Lê Thắng
Ca Lê Thắng was born in 1949, spent his childhood in Đồng Tháp Mười resistance zone. After the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954, he moved with his family to Hanoi in 1955 as part of the national regrouping program.
Ca Lê Thắng’s father served as the Director of the Social Sciences Library in Hanoi. This connection allowed him early access to a variety of books, documents, and information from foreign sources and Southern Vietnam during the early 1970s. Despite studying art within a Socialist educational framework, he developed an early curiosity and began experimenting with Cubism in 1975, gradually transitioning to Abstract during the 80s.
After Vietnam's reunification, Ca Lê Thắng returned to Southern Vietnam in 1976, where he served as a lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts until 1988. From 1988 to 2000, he was the Permanent Deputy General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association.
Since his graduation, he has consistently participated in numerous art exhibitions of various scales within Vietnam. During his most prolific period, from the late 1980s to 2000, he exhibited internationally at venues such as the Fujita Venté Museum (Tokyo, Japan), the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (Manila, Philippines), and other exhibitions in Switzerland, South Korea, Singapore, and more.
As a member of the Group of 10 (Nguyễn Trung, Đào Minh Tri, Ca Lê Thắng, Nguyễn Tấn Cương, Đỗ Hoàng Tường, Trần Văn Thảo, Hứa Thanh Bình, Nguyễn Trung Tín, Vũ Hà Nam, Nguyễn Thanh Bình), he regularly showcased his works at the “Recent Works” group exhibitions from 1989 to 1995, contributing to the revival of abstract painting throughout the country. Additionally, alongside Nguyễn Trung, he co-founded and managed the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Journal, an influential publication released from 1991 to 1996.
For his significant contributions to Vietnamese art, he received numerous awards from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association and the Vietnam Fine Arts Association. His works have been preserved in the collections of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, and the Quang San Art Museum.
In Hanoi, he began studying painting at the age of 13 under his first teacher, artist Diệp Minh Châu. From 1963 to 1970, he studied at the Vietnam College of Fine Arts. Immediately after graduation, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Intermediate Program at the Vietnam College of Fine Arts from 1971 to 1972. Later, he pursued a university-level program at the same institution from 1972 to 1976. During his studies, he received guidance from renowned artists such as Trần Huy Oánh, Trần Lưu Hậu, and Giáng Hương, among others.
