Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnamese traditional art was based purely in the aesthetic of the ancient Orient. With the exception of Le Van Mien (1873- 1943), who graduate from the Ecole National des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1895, the first generation of the painters to be influenced by European criteria were those who studied at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de I'Indochine, which was founded by the French in Hanoi in 1925 and closed in 1945. Given the historical context, it was inevitable that Vietnamese would turn to the West. Vietnamese modern art may be divided into three periods:
1. 1925 - 1945. Methods and techniques of scientific perspective and rational figurative representation inherited in the West from the Renaisance began to be accepted by Vietnamese artists and were included in the academic and classical syllabus. Oil painting was used in Vietnam for the first time.
2. 1945 - 1975. Vietnamese modern art was split by the division of the country into two political regimes, especially starting in 1965.. Socialist realism dominated in North of Vietnam, and in the regions controlled by the French and in South of Vietnam during the U.S. occupation the arts adhered to various world trends.
3. 1975 - today. The period since national reunification can be subdivided in two. In the first years, socialist realism continued but grew more flexible and tolerant toward others world art developments. An important turning point came in about in 1985, at the time of national renewal, There has been an intense and rapid incorporation of influenced from abroad by modern Vietnamese artists, and, indeed, characteristic of Vietnamese modern art has taken shape.
BOITRAN GALLERY 
