Dinh Q. Le at the opening of his show at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. Much of his work focused on his home country of Vietnam. “If you know a history,” he once said, “you own it.”Credit...Jason Kempin/Getty Images
by: Holland Cotter
April 19, 2o24
Dinh Q. Le, a Vietnam-born artist whose best-known work combined and compared the on-the-ground realities of the 20th-century war that devastated his homeland with the fantasy versions of that war projected by Hollywood, died on April 6 at his home in Ho Chi Minh City.
The death, confirmed by his New York gallery, PPOW, was caused by a stroke. He was 56, according to his sister, Ly P. Le-Cao, though his precise date of birth in 1968 was unknown.
Mr. Le (pronounced LAY) gained international attention, beginning in the 1990s, with a series of large, tapestry-like woven collages. As a child, he had learned the weaving technique from an aunt who used it to make grass mats. For his own version, though, he used photographs that he had cut into strips.
Dinh Q. Le, Untitled, (Paramount), 2003. The work uses strips of photo paper woven together to create its image. The technique came from Mr. Le’s aunt, who used it to make grass mats.Credit...Dinh Q. Le, via P.P.O.W. Gallery NYC
