Lot 273. Đỗ Quang Em (B. 1942), Objectives in my life, signed and dated 1996, oil on canvas, 66.5 by 76.5 cm.; 26 1/4  by 30 in. Estimate  40,000 — 60,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Private Collection, USA

Notes: "Serious and profound, full of shadow, and dark emptiness, Em's paintings are within the Vietnamese context profoundly radical works. Em stands outside the mainstream of post 1975 Vietnamese painting- a Southerner, a Buddhist, a photo-realist. Em turned his back on Northern lyricism and its tradition based on modernism and leapfrogged the early French modernism of Matisse and Cezanne to embrace the aesthetics of the Renaissance and 17th century Dutch painting."

Jeffrey Hantover, Out From The Shadows: Do Quang Em, Galerie La Vong Limited, Hong Kong, 2001, pg. 13.

Sotheby's. Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art, Hong Kong, 03 Oct 2016, 10:00 PM