“Between Two Centuries”: First solo painting exhibition of 90-year-old artist

The exhibition “Between Two Centuries” displays 30 silk, watercolour paintings of painter Mong Bich which highlight her nearly six-decade artistic journey. The exhibition is being organised by the French Institute in Hanoi from October 22 to November 21. A majority of the paintings on view are portraits made in the early 1990s. Unlike works by her contemporaries such as Nguyen Tien Chung, Le Thi Kim Ngoc and Nguyen Thanh Ngoc, Mong Bich worked with watercolour on silk rather than oil on canvas. In the picture is a sketch of a Korean child that Mong Bich drew in 2016. This painting is chosen as the representative painting of the exhibition. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

This is the first time the 90-year-old silk painter has had her own solo exhibition. Due to the war, she and her family had to evacuate until 1957 when she had a chance to learn at the College of Fine Arts (now the Vietnam University of Fine Arts). In 1970, she became an illustrator for Doc Lap (Independence) newspaper. Painting allowed Mong Bich to capture reality as she saw it. Tran Van Can, who was also formerly Director of Hanoi University of Fine Arts, comments that Mong Bich ‘paints with instinct and emotion’. The painter’s works are sincere depictions of people and nature (Photo: VietnamPlus)

In 1990, when the newspaper office was dissolved, she was transferred to work at the Atomic Institute, where she was sent to paint a nuclear reactor in Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. During this trip, she stopped by the Cham-inhabited area in Ninh Phuoc district, central Ninh Thuan province, and drew many impressive paintings. In the picture, she painted a Cham old man in 1987 – a prissy person who took time to let Mong Bich draw him. Mong Bich’s first exhibition features 30 sketches and paintings using silk and watercolour that span the 1960s to the present. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Mong Bich is among the few female artists of her time to have won major awards. Her painting "Me Va Con" (Mother And Child) won the first prize at a Viet Bac Interzone Department of Culture exhibition in 1961, while "Ba Gia" (Old Grandmother) won the top prize at the Vietnam Fine Arts Association show in 1993. She once dreamt to draw oil paintings, as at that time people thought it was good to draw oil paintings. However, the conditions did not allow her and the materials for making colours were also very complicated and inconvenient, so she chose to draw on silk. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Coming to the exhibition, art lovers have the opportunity to listen to the stories behind each work narrated by the painter herself. One of her two sons, artist Bui Hoai Mai, talks about his mother: ‘Her painting is neither a political tool, nor a means of subsistence or a means of leaving a personal mark. For her, painting is simply the love of beauty and perseverance behind the easel’. Mong Bich is an embodiment of change in Vietnamese art and history over the past century, Professor Nora Taylor of the Chicago Fine Arts Academy once said. She was born in Hanoi in 1931 and graduated from the Hanoi College of Fine Arts in 1970. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

‘Mong Bich has not only lived longer than most of her peers, but she is also an embodiment of changes in Vietnam and its art history in the last century’. These were the words of Professor Nora A. Taylor while discussing painter Mong Bich, who is now in her 90s. Organised by curators from L'Espace, Hanoi, in collaboration with the artist's family, her first solo exhibition 'Between Two Centuries' is recognition of Mong Bich's unique position in Vietnam’s cultural heritage. Unlike works by her contemporaries such as Nguyen Tien Chung, Le Thi Kim Ngoc and Nguyen Thanh Ngoc, Mong Bich worked with watercolour on silk rather than oil on canvas. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Painting allowed Mong Bich to capture reality as she saw it. Tran Van Can, who was also formerly Director of the Hanoi University of Fine Arts, comments that Mong Bich 'paints with instinct and emotion'. Her works are sincere depictions of people and nature, a vastly different image from the prevailing 'socialist realist' movement which focused on projecting a strong, independent Vietnam. 'No one wanted to buy my paintings at the time because they depicted only rural old women and ethnic minorities, which were not the trend,' Mong Bich shares. Going against the trend meant that she was an outsider and had little success in selling her works. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Coming to the exhibition, visitors can watch a short movie conducted by artist Bui Hoai Nam Son – her grandson. The short movie features her daily life. Today, Mong Bich lives in a small house on a hill in Hien Van village in Bac Ninh, just outside of Hanoi. It was built 10 years ago with the prize money from winning art competitions. Despite her impressive age, Mong Bich is full of vitality and years of painting ahead of her. When asked by a friend why she does not rest, Mong Bich replies, ‘For me, drawing is resting. I will draw until I cannot draw anymore’. (Photo: VietnamPlus)