Thirty-three must be the age at which one realizes that art can an investment... S was my age when he stated the above the last time we met in his hometown of Amsterdam, a half decade ago. I didn't understand it quite yet at the time. But his words reverberated through the years and now speak to me.
My Hanoi roots somehow come through at this point in my life. The art in this city - I find it vibrating and appeasing to my mixed roots. After all, my ancestry lies here, on Hang Bong Street, with the textile merchants and the mandarins, who knows... This city, although as dynamic and energetic as Bangkok or Saigon, superimposes an aura of culture and intellectualism that resonate with me. Ancestors? Previous life? Who knows. It just seems so deeply familiar.
Thavibu Gallery on the anthropology of Vietnamese art.
Galleries in Hanoi:
- Hanoi Art Gallery
- The gorgeous Apricot Gallery, with a painting of monks quoted at 10 000 USD!
- and its little sister Thanh Mai Gallery where I purchased my wintery Vietnamese painting. White is the colour of death in Vietnamese traditions, but to Westerners, it is peace. What is the significance then of this white appeasing wintery painting, from a young Vietnamese painter who has never seen snow?
- The Tonkin Gallery, mentioned in this article, is where I bought my very own genuine Dinh Quan lacquer. Poor Dinh Quan seems lost in a mass production of curvaceous if not generic women in áo dài which must sell well to wealthy foreigners. It is a shame, because I like his much more abstract lacquers. I couldn't understand why he was so well known outside of Vietnam and was the most well known current modern lacquer artist with exhibitions in many other countries - until I saw his non áo dài works, much more interesting. The girl I got, contrary to his luscious women in áo dài and his curvy nudes, is all ethereal and symbolic - quite a reflection, really... More on Dinh Quan here, at the Thavibu Gallery in Bangkok.
- Green Palm Gallery, also very nice, with two sites here on Hang Bong street.
- Mai Gallery which I didn't get to visit, but which is historical - and right around the corner.
- Viet Fine Arts Gallery with an inactive website, by Nha Tho.
- And Café Lam, which I didn't get to see, and was probably staying next to, the last time I was here, in 2004. Lam was one of the first art collectors in Hanoi and gathered a great number of paintings including those of Bùi Xuân Phái, the (now) most reknowned Vietnamese painter who died in poverty in 1988, before the country opened up to foreigners.
An article in the New York Times of last year comments on the art scene in Hanoi.
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En me promenant ici, je ne cesse de songer à ma famille et ses racines d'ici, la manière d'être et les principes de ma mère, et je vois les similitudes avec la nature de Hanoi. Les 36 rues historiques, l'ancienne maison familiale de mon grand-père marchand de coton sur la rue Hang Bong, juste au coin, et ce que je lis des perceptions occidentales de la ville - une richesse culturelle, une austérité mandarine, une des villes les plus secrètement intellectuelle et cultivées d'Asie du Sud Ouest. Mes racines sont ici, des générations de marchands de coton et de mandarins. Même si l'art de Hanoi a pour public et mécènes une majorité d'occidentaux, il dénote une culture et un sens de vivre profondément ancrés dans les austères gens du Nord-Vietnam. Même les poèmes de prison de Bác Hồ Chí Minh dénotent une rigueur intellectuelle reconnue des người Bắc.
Je cherche du phở, du bun cha ca, du banh cuon, du bun bo. L'organicité de la ville, ses odeurs, le fait que traverser la rue est un sport et requiert des nerfs d'acier, tout cela m'inspire. Les gens assis le soir à savourer de la Bia hoi et des grillades de rue, la nonchalance des jeunes d'ici, le choc des traditions - tout cela résonne en moi.
Contrairement à il y a quatre ans, les gens sont maintenant habitués à voir des Viet Kieu revenir ici et maintenant on louange mon vietnamien pourtant massacré. Je vois pourtant aussi les racines chinoises de ces vietnamiens tapageurs et marchands, bien moins innocents et simples que les laotiens de Luang Prabang. Je m'attendais à ce que la ville soit plus développée mais rien n'a vraiment changé dans le Vieux Hanoi - peut-être que le gouvernement a compris qu'il fallait préserver son aspect historique. Je me vois revenir ici à Hanoi, peut-être pour explorer encore ses rues historiques, ses vieux temples et ses galleries d'art.
