A charming, quiet Hanoi in Bui Xuan Phai’s paintings

On the occasion of the 90th birthday of late painter Bui Xuan Phai, the Goethe Institute organized an exhibition of Phai’s paintings, which were selected by his son, painter Bui Thanh Phuong.

VnnNews – On the occasion of the 90^th birthday of late painter Bui Xuan Phai, the Goethe Institute in Hanoi organized an exhibition of paintings by Bui Xuan Phai, which were selected by his son, painter Bui Thanh Phuong.

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Artist Bui Xuan Phuong introduced his father paintings at the opening ceremony on September 1.

The exhibition opened on September 1 and will close on September 3 at the Goethe Institute, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hanoi.

Bui Xuan Phai was born in 1920 and died in 1988 in Hanoi. He graduated from the Painting Section of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (1941-1945 class), joined the Resistance, took part in many group exhibitions in the free zone. In 1952, he came back to Hanoi and lived and worked at Nº87 Thuoc Bac street until his death.

From 1956 to 1957, Bui Xuan Phai taught at the Hanoi Fine Arts College. As a sequel to the Nhân Văn – Giai Phẩm (Humanism – Belles Lettres) movement, he was sent to reeducation labor at a joinery workshop in Nam Dinh; at the same time, the direction of the Fine Arts College suggested that he should submit his resignation.

Bui Xuan Phai formed part of the last generation of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine, contemporary with Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Duong Bich Lien, those great painters who together with himself had a profound influence on the evolution of Vietnamese modern art. He specialised mainly in oil painting and his favorite subject-matter was Hanoi old streets.

As early as in his lifetime, his works on this theme were affectionately styled Pho Phai (Phai’s streets) by the art-loving people. Bui Xuan Phai’s streetscapes are at the same time antique and realistic, superbly expressing the soul of Hanoi streets in the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s. In his paintings, the outlines are deeply marked, the street thus not only becoming itself, but also getting closer to everybody, both the painted surface and the surroundings show an inner depth.

Watching Phai’s streetscapes, the viewer can sense that the artist conveys his nostalgic memories filled with vague regrets and indefinite melancholy in every brushstroke, like an omen of the imminent disappearance of every of these roofs and people that embody the soul of the past. Besides old streets, he was also very successful in other subjects such as cheo, portraits, rural landscapes, nudes, still lifes… Many of his works won prizes at national and Hanoi exhibitions. He painted on canvas, paper, cardboard, wooden plates, even on newsprint when he ran short of materials.

He used various media: oil, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, crayon… His works profoundly reflect the Vietnamese people’s soul, humanist character and love of freedom, combining humor with compassion for unhappy fates. He made an immense contribution in the domain of illustration for newspaper and book cover design and in 1982, won an international (Leipzig) prize for his design of the book He cheo (Cheo jostlers).

As a result of his joining the Nhan Van-Giai Pham movement, from 1957 on, his activity suffered severe restrictions. To make both ends meet, he had to take orders for illustrations and comics for newspapers, using any pen-names that came to mind: PiHa, ViVu, Ly… Not until 1984 did he have his first and unique solo exhibition, which was highly appreciated by both the public and his colleagues. With 24 paintings sold right at the opening, this was the most successful one-man show so far in Vietnam. And it was also the first time the central television devoted a whole programme to highlight Bui Xuan Phai’s life and work.

Despite hard living conditions, with his love for art, his thirst for beauty, Bui Xuan Phai always managed to overcome the hassles of everyday life to create soulful works vibrant with simple, unsophisticated beauty and emotional depths. Wrote art critic Thai Ba Van: “Bui Xuan Phai’s intrepid and tight-lipped journey with his brush and palette is magnificent and full of significance for Hanoi and for us eternally. Rather than being historic evidence, it constitutes the humanistic proof of an artistic consciousness”.

In 1996, he was posthumously awarded with the noblest Ho Chi Minh Award.

Below are some paintings by Bui Xuan Phai:

Hanoi’s old street in a newly introduced painting by Bui Xuan Phai.

PV

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