Lacquer Painting – Sơn mài

The exhibition presents a chamber collection of lacquer paintings (Sơn mài) by Ema Prosová (1999), which expands the exhibition Vietnam Close and Distant at the Náprstek Museum with a contemporary artistic dialogue with Vietnamese tradition.

The project develops the exhibition as a living and gradually transforming platform that connects art, cultural memory, and the contemporary experience of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. The presentation of Ema Prosová's work offers insight into the process of transferring and reinterpreting Vietnamese aesthetics in the Czech environment and shows how a traditional technique can gain new meaning in contemporary art.

Ema Prosová, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, became acquainted with the Sơn mài technique during a study internship in Huế, Vietnam, under the guidance of artist and educator Quoc Le. Lacquer painting is one of the most technologically and time-consuming artistic techniques – paintings are created on a wooden panel (Vóc) by gradually applying layers of natural lacquer, pigments, and materials such as shells, mother-of-pearl, eggshells, gold, or silver. Each layer undergoes a long process of drying, sanding, and polishing, during which the resulting composition and characteristic deep luster are gradually revealed.

This chamber exhibition enriches the Vietnam Close and Distant exhibition with a contemporary artistic interpretation of traditional craft.