Diem Phung Thi
Diem Phung Thi (1920-2002, Vietnam) is is recognized as one of the pioneering figures of modern Vietnamese art. She graduated in Dentistry from the Hanoi Medical University in 1946 and joined the resistance for two years. In 1948, due to a serious illness, she was sent to France for treatment. There, she continued her studies and earned a Doctorate in Dental Anatomy, with a dissertation on the Vietnamese custom of betel chewing.
It was not until 1959 that Diem Phung Thi began practicing art, studying sculpture in the studio of the sculptor Antoniucci Volti. In 1966, she held her first solo exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris, France. From then until her return to Vietnam in 1992, she exhibited widely across Europe, and her works entered numerous international collections.
Her sculptural language reached its fullest maturity with the development of her “seven modules” – a system of abstract, symbolic forms she devised to construct sculptures, reliefs, and paintings of great formal coherence and poetic sensibility.
Before her passing, Diem Phung Thi donated hundreds of artworks to the city of Hue, now housed and displayed at the Diem Phung Thi Art Center (part of the Hue Museum of Fine Arts) – a dedicated space honoring her visionary and singular artistic legacy.