Bowers: Art of Controversy

* Re “Don’t Be Fooled by Bowers Exhibit,” Letters, July 11:

The writer warned the readers of communist propaganda in the Bowers’ Vietnamese art show: “This exhibit could be a good introduction for many Americans to the evils of communism, as long as they remember that much of the art is communist propaganda.” This letter was misleading, irresponsible and plainly illogical.

The exhibit contains two programs.

The first, “Dong Son: Drums of Resistance and the Flowering of Bronze Age Vietnam,” features artifacts from the bronze-working art and culture that flourished in northern Vietnam about 500 B.C.

These Dong Son artifacts were borrowed from private collectors in the U.S. They provide us a glimpse of the early Vietnamese society 2,500 years ago, a society very much preoccupied with war, just like today’s Vietnam.

The decorations on many bronze artifacts show warships carrying warriors in full feather headdresses, bow, arrows, spears, etc. into battles. The Dong Son artifacts are important cultural heritage of the Vietnamese people and should be seen by all Vietnamese Americans and those interested in Vietnamese culture and history.

The Bowers Museum staff and volunteers had worked hard to organize this special exhibit. It’s misleading and irresponsible to label it as communist propaganda.

I did not see communist propaganda in the second program, “A Winding River: The Journey of Contemporary Art in Vietnam.” One supposedly communist painting, “Red Buffalo” is just that, a poorly painted red buffalo on red background. Another, “Mother’s Hearts,” depicts a mother standing in front of an altar with pictures of her eight dead sons. What I see is just a bad painting.

No painting could make people forget about the dismal economic and social achievements of Vietnam, China, Cuba and North Korea in recent decades.

Letter writers should stop worrying about communism and let people have the freedom to make their own decision on art and propaganda.

HOANG NGUYEN

Sacramento

* Americans should be aware of the communist propaganda incorporated in the exhibit at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

Besides the obvious--sympathetic paintings of people in the North Vietnamese Army uniforms--there are other especially ugly messages.

One picture is of three chairs--black, white and yellow--representing the races of the world. Surrounding the chair is red--the color of the communist flag; i.e., communism is going to rule the world.

This is your tax money at work. This vile propaganda must be withdrawn and the people who chose and approved it must be fired in the name of Americans and good Vietnamese killed and maimed in the war and those missing in action and prisoners of war and their suffering families.

This exhibit teaches our children that we approve of totalitarianism.

P.J. DOUGLAS

San Juan Capistrano

* Over the weekend I was able to return to the controversial Vietnamese exhibit without the crowds of opening day.

Although it is the best the Bowers has had in several years, it really is a pretty mundane exhibit, with the exception of four or five excellent paintings.

What stood out was the number of protesters surrounding the museum. My suggestion to the protesters is that if they think it is biased and supports a hostile government that suppresses their people, they should take positive action, not negative.

They should organize their own exhibit of free Vietnamese painters to show what they can accomplish.

HENRY BEERS

La Habra