'Stretcher Series' by Toi Hoang, 1990, Large Conceptual Oil, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Saigon

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Signed lower right, on stretcher bar, 'T H N' for Toi Hoang (Vietnamese-American, born 1962) and dated 1990; additionally signed, … Read more Signed lower right, on stretcher bar, 'T H N' for Toi Hoang (Vietnamese-American, born 1962) and dated 1990; additionally signed, verso, on label and indistinctly titled.

The scholar Amy Feldman says of the artist: "Toi Hoang, a Vietnamese American painter and the 1994 Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award recipient, offer a new range of perspectives on the war, relocation, and Vietnamese American culture. For Vietnamese Americans, Hoang brings a bit of Vietnam’s tortured landscape with him to this new country. His artwork is a remembrance and a renewal."

Toi Hoang left Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, at the age of thirteen. He traveled through several refugee camps before settling in San Jose, California. In San Jose, Hoang studied at junior college and then attended San Jose State. Influenced by Asian philosophy but inspired by Western painters including Anselm Kiefer and Mark Rothko, Hoang's work expresses both the horror of the Vietnam War and a hope for his old country. In the artist's words "Asian thinking is very circular - life is up and down. To me, to fail is to gain something. You lose one thing, you gain something else."

Hoang was invited to participate in the the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art's show "Art at the Armory: Occupied Territory" (1992) where he displayed along the walls and on the floor pieces from his "Stretcher Series" - painted, and charred hospital stretchers.

Accompanied by a first-edition copy of 'SECA Art Award 1994: Toi Hoang' published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Reference:
Interview: "A conversation with Toi Hoang", Meredith Tromble, Artweek Magazine, 4 June 1992; et al. See less