Bui Xuan Phai (1920-1988) was one of the most
remarkable, most charming and most unusual figures of
Vietnamese modern art. When he graduated from Frenchcreated
Ecole des Beaux Arts d'Indochine in Hanoi (1925-1945), the
world art was in its post-war period, one of drastic
differentiation, Picasso, Mastisse, Leger already ranked
among the classical masters. Europe gave full blast to the
trend of lyrical abstractionism and America to that of
expressionist one. All that was taken in by Bui Xuan Phai,
by his heart's eye. And be managed to find his own dimension
in the strict framework of the society and later, his art,
like an underground water spring, spread far and wide and
even impregnated alien souls with his sincerity.Next
Bùi Xuân Phái sinh năm 1920, mất năm
1988 tại Hà Nội. Ông tốt nghiệp khoa Hội họa trường Cao đẳng Mỹ
thuật Đông Dương khoá 1941 – 1946, tham gia kháng chiến, đồng
thời tham dự nhiều triển lăm chung với các hoạ sĩ khác. Năm 1952
ông về Hà nội, sống và sáng tác tại nhà (số 87 Phố Thuốc Bắc)
cho đến khi mất. Từ năm 1956 đến năm 1957, Bùi Xuân Phái giảng
dạy tại Trường Mỹ thuật Hà Nội, khi xảy ra phong trào Nhân văn
Giai phẩm, hoạ sĩ phải đi lao động, học tập trong một xưởng mộc
tại Nam Định và ban giám hiệu nhà trường đă đề nghị ông viết đơn
xin ngưng giảng dậy tại trường Mỹ thuật...Xem
tiếp
There is an instant association between Hanoi and Bui Xuan Phai,
encapsulated in the a popular expression “pho Phai” (“Phai’s
streets”). Such easy linked familiarity between the place and
its artist is evidence that Bui Xuan Phai is now considered
Vietnam’s most significant and the most popular artist of urban
space, and the recognized authority on painting the country’s
capital. In this context, it is difficult to believe that only
three decades ago the artist was criticized for these same
paintings, whose sad grey buildings, deserted streets, and
lonely, mournful passersby had been seen as insufficiently
optimistic to fit the requirements of the socialist realism
style promoted by the state. Today those same paintings have
become a static model for hundreds of young Phai followers whose
city is a utopia in the past—flat, schematic, unreal. Meanwhile,
the city of Phai, painted in its past, reveals the Hanoi Phai
saw as he understood and cared to represent it. The illusory
simplicity of his paintings disguise his complex approach to the
city, where the city was not simply a subject to portray, but
served as means to romanticize solitude. Thus these master works
give the viewer an opportunity to pause within the city, in
private, face to face, stimulating the desires of residents of
the overpopulated city to experience similar feelings in
reality, and thereby provoking acerbic feelings of nostalgia for
a city many have never known.
Bui Xuan Phai (1920-1987) is probably the most well-known Vietnamese artist. He
was born and lived all his life in Hanoi. He was a graduate of l'Ecole des Beaux
Arts de l'Indochine (1941-1945). At the beginning of his artistic career he drew
cartoons and made illustrations for Hanoi newspapers, worked for newspapers in
the Military Zones, and later in the Cheo (folk opera) theatre. For most of his
life he was an independent artist who worked intensively in his studio at 87
Thuoc Bac Street and left a huge art heritage among which the pictures of the
ancient streets of Hanoi are the most famous. Bui Xuan Phai, whose name everyone
in Vietnam now knows, had only one solo exhibition during his lifetime, and was
allowed to go abroad only once-to Germany.
