Folk Fine Arts

Folk pictures include those celebrating Tet, the Vietnamese New Year as well as images made for prayer or worship, abound in several provinces of Vietnam. These mass-produced works by generations of folk artists, not only meet spiritual and aesthetic needs of laboring people but also convey ethical and moral values. Three major genres of folk art, well-known to the Vietnamese, are Dong Ho (in Bac Ninh Province), Hang Trong (in Hanoi), Lang Sinh (in Hue). They represent the distinctive color of Vietnam's regions. The main themes are wishes, aspirations, scenes from daily life, heroes and genie worship.
The Vietnam Museum's folk art collection includes gilded vermilion wooden statues devoted to festivals or for daily worship. The collection also houses statues from Tay Nguyen (the central highlands) funeral houses, both primitive and modern, depicting figures with simple shapes and a high degree of abstraction.