This essay revisits and evaluates the strengths and limitations of the historical exhibition held by the Cernuschi Museum in Paris from October 2024 through May 2025. The museum showcased the artistic trajectories and works of three Vietnamese artists—Lê Phổ, Mai Thứ, and Vũ Cao Đàm—who were among the first to train at the École des beaux-arts de l’Indochine before settling in France. Drawing on archives preserved by the artists’ families, the exhibition explored how these three friends negotiated and reconciled Vietnamese and French identities in their artistic practices.
Nicolas Henni-Trinh Duc (Thu,) studied this question.