VietNamNet Bridge - With galleries mushrooming around the country and exhibitions of paintings, performance art, spatial arrangement, and installation art being held without licenses, the government should have closer oversight of the arts scene, artists said at a conference in Ha Noi earlier this month.

A calligraphy exhibition at the HCM City Exhibition Centre.

They called for amendments to the decree on fine arts management.

After changes on five separate occasions in the past, the decree was whittled down from an unwieldy 100 articles to 52 to regulate exhibitions, establishment of galleries, auctions of artworks at home and abroad.

But delegates at the meeting said it is still not comprehensive enough.

“The articles governing the operation of art galleries, their owners’ responsibilities, and specification on location, size, and other aspects of a gallery are not specific” Nguyen Do Bao, chairman of the Ha Noi Fine Arts Association, said.

Painter Tran Khanh Chuong, chairman of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, said, “Artworks that have not received licenses are displayed extensively in galleries.”

Vi Kien Thanh, deputy head of the Department of Fine Arts – Photography, said: “Fine arts galleries also operate as businesses. We can not appraise them from the standpoint of art alone. The Government is looking for ways to regulate their operations better.”

Delegates also raised the issue of copies of paintings. Even when a contract is signed with artists to reproduce their works, no authority checks if just the contracted number of replicas is made, they pointed out.

Many works are not licensed for display but are yet printed in picture books by some publishers, they added.

The conference also discussed other problems like arts exhibitions and restoration of statues and paintings.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism called for opinions to amend the decree on fine arts management.

(Source: SGGP)