drawing
- Museum number
- 1999,1004,0.2
- Title
- Object: drawing
- Description
-
Drawing, made in charcoal on machine-made paper, of a solitary soldier playing a makeshift xylophone ('trung') in the forest. The instrument is made from lengths of bamboo and is suspended at one end from a tree. Dated and inscribed.
- Production date
- 1967
- Dimensions
-
Height: 24 centimetres
-
Width: 34.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Harrison-Hall, 2002:
The 'trung' is a traditional Vietnamese instrument from the northern and central highlands. Kontum is in a region in the Central Highlands of Vietnam inhabited primarily by ethnic minority groups including the Bahnar, Jarai, Rengao and Sedeng. Five years after this image was made in 1 972 the area was devastated in a major battle.
Colonel Quang Tho was born on 30 November 1929 in Hanoi and died in December 2001. He enlisted in the army in 1945 to fight against the French and recorded events through his drawings. In 1955 he was sent by the army to the Fine Arts College, Hanoi, and graduated in 1963. From 1963 to 1975 he continued to serve with the army during the war against America, achieving the rank of colonel. His works are in several museums and he has been awarded many prizes, including the Vietnamese National Exhibition Prize in 1960, 1980 and 1990. He received the Independence Medal for his contribution to art while he was in the army, recording the war both against the French and against the Americans.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: American-Vietnam War
- Acquisition date
- 1999
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1999,1004,0.2