Lương Xuân Đoàn was born in Hanoi on 17 June 1952, nephew of renowned first-generation artist Lương Xuân Nhị. Đoàn served with the People’s Army of Vietnam (also known as the North Vietnamese Army) on the Hồ Chí Minh trail from 1973-75 during the Second Indochina War. He was a student at Hanoi Fine Art College when war broke out on the northern border with China, on 17 February 1979.

The cultural policy at the time was to give artists broader social views and more experience.  It was viewed that to be useful as artists, they must understand both the art world and real life.  It was also deemed important that they should understand the conditions of the previous generation. As a result, the Ministry of Culture entered into a cooperation with the Ministry of Defence’s Border Security Unit to send art students to the war zone. Lương Xuân Đoàn was sent to Lạng Sơn, living with the soldiers and sketching and painting using direct observation. All the students’ works were exhibited both to the soldiers and local people, always in public venues with the objective of improving morale of both army and civilians.

Đoàn graduated from college in 1980 and has participated in exhibitions in the former Soviet Union, Finland, USA, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Although he continues to work as an artist, he also plays an important role as a government official in guiding arts and censorship policy.