Category: <span>Christie’s</span>

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Exhibition, Storiesby Boi Tran Garden

Inside the Philippe Damas Collection and a Historic Christie’s Hong Kong Auction: A Quest for Eternity

Boi Tran Garden reflects on a defining moment for Vietnamese modern art, following an intimate encounter with collector Philippe Damas and Francis Belin on the eve of Christie’s Hong Kong auction A Quest for Eternity. The landmark sale achieved historic results, setting multiple world records and affirming the growing international recognition of Vietnamese modernism. More than an auction, A Quest for Eternity stands as a testament to scholarship, vision, and the enduring cultural legacy of Vietnam’s artists on the global stage.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Exhibition, Interview, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

Boi Tran, “The Elegants Of Hué”, 2015, or The Inevitable Choice of Distinction Against Fate

In the hush that follows ruin, some shout; others whisper. Boi Tran paints. The Élégantes de Hue, seven women in flowing áo dài, do not ask to be seen; they endure, as Hue endured. Wounded, quiet, and radiant. Their beauty is not spectacle, but refuge. Melchior Dejouany’s journey into Vietnamese art began not with grandeur, but with the quiet soul of Boi Tran’s lacquer.
Among lacquer and legacy, her work is not loud. It is lasting.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Exhibition, Interview, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

From Lacquer to Light: A French Collector’s Journey Begins with Boi Tran

French collector Melchior Dejouany once called discovering pictorial lacquer “one of the most beautiful revelations” of his life. That revelation began with a painting by Boi Tran, luminous, quiet, and unforgettable, seen at Christie’s Hong Kong in 2012. In her layered technique, he found something deeper: feeling, stillness, soul. Her work opened not just a door into Vietnamese art, but into a story, one that continues across generations, bound by vision, tenderness, and the quiet power of beauty that travels and connects across oceans.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Exhibition, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

Christie’s Paris | The Phoenix Glue and the Broken Silk Thread: Important Vietnamese Artworks from the Melchior Dejouany Collection

The Melchior Dejouany Collection showcases the brilliance of Vietnamese masters: Nguyen Gia Tri’s layered lacquer dreams, Le Pho’s elegant silks, and Vu Cao Dam’s poetic forms. And yet, it began with a single painting by Boi Tran, a quiet work of lacquer that spoke not of grandeur, but of grace. It was her voice, contemporary, contemplative, deeply human, that first drew him in. Among legends, her presence is not loud; it is luminous.

PostArt, Christie's, Culture, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

Ngo Manh Duc, Son Of Le Thi Luu, And Boi Tran: Recognition Does Not Require Proximity, Or Where One Way Of Seeing Meets Another

The exchange between Ngo Manh Duc and Boi Tran did not begin with a meeting, but through the work itself. Having contemplated her lacquer, he recognised in her an artist “amongst the great, very great artists,” a gesture modest in form yet precise in meaning. Following Le Thi Luu, Boi Tran stands among the rare Vietnamese women artists whose work has entered the international art market. What emerges is not proximity, but recognition, when one artistic lineage encounters another.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Exhibition, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

Christie’s Paris | Women in Art From the XVIth to the XXIst Century, or Boi Tran: When a Singular Presence from Vietnam Does Not Remain in the Shadows

In June 2021, Christie's Paris presented its first sale dedicated entirely to women artists, spanning five centuries. Within this panorama, a single Vietnamese female artist appeared: Boi Tran. Her lacquer work was not positioned as an exception, but as part of a continuity, a presence already formed, entering a wider field of visibility. In a sale conceived to illuminate those long in the shadows, her work did not emerge as a rediscovery, but as a quiet unfolding.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Storiesby Boi Tran Garden

Thanh Nien News | Complete Transcendence

“Mother and Children” fetched approximately USD 10,000 at Christie’s Hong Kong on May 26, 2013. Boi Tran is only the second Vietnamese female painter, the other being Le Thi Luu (1911 – 1988), selected by the two prestigious international auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

A First for Vietnam: Thuc Doan and Christie’s, or The First Vietnamese Woman to Contribute to a Landmark Vietnamese Art Auction “Se Souvenir Des Belles Choses: A Curated Collection of Vietnamese Art” as an Art Advisor and Translator

In 2016, during the 250th anniversary year of Christie's, a landmark sale devoted to Vietnamese art was presented in Hong Kong under the title Se Souvenir Des Belles Choses. Among those contributing behind the scenes was Thuc Doan, recognised as the first Vietnamese woman to assist Christie’s in such a capacity as translator, advisor and cultural interlocutor.

PostArt, Auction, Christie's, Storiesby Dinh Thuc Doan Tran

Hue to the World: Boi Tran Art Gallery, A Pioneer Recognised by Christie’s in 1999

In December 1999, a letter arrived from Christie’s, full of grace. It crossed borders to honour a pioneering art gallery in Hue, where Boi Tran had quietly nurtured not just art, but meaning. At a time when few heard the voices of contemporary Vietnam, her gallery had already become a sanctuary of beauty, memory, and soul.
The letter was not a headline. It was something rarer: a moment of quiet recognition.
And from that stillness, Hue began to speak. And the world began to listen.