A PRIVATE MUSEUM THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO LEAVE

In Ho Chi Minh City, a private art museum has opened on Li Tinh Thang Street. It is practically unknown to foreign tourists. Perhaps because it is located in an inconspicuous house, which in Moscow is called "Khrushchev", it does not even have a sign. And it is called ordinarily - "House of Memory of the artist Bui Xuan Fai".

Bui Xuan Fai is one of the greatest Vietnamese artists of the 20th century. A native of Hanoi, he sang in his paintings of his native city with its ancient streets, patriarchal life. In 1946, the twenty-six-year-old Bui Xuan Fai graduated from the French-established Indochina High School of Fine Arts, where he was influenced by French culture. The modest, almost bleak tones that the capital of Vietnam is painted in most of the year are conveyed in Bui Xuan Fai's canvases with confident strokes in an impressionist manner.

Critics point out that his oil paintings are similar to Rouault's, Marc's, and Cezanne's techniques. Bui Xuan Fai also has abstract works. A typical example of the avant-garde in the artist's work is the self - portrait kept in the museum, which is a mosaic of azure and purple triangles. But you can also consider this work as another joke of the master: among his friends, he was known as an excellent jolly fellow.

The artist's watercolors and pastels are closer to the traditions of Vietnamese painting, but they also have a European influence. True, it concerns only the technique of the master's work, and in terms of content and spirit, his paintings are national, Vietnamese in nature. Bui Xuan Fai liked to draw artists from the National Teo Theater. Their colorful outfits and especially makeup could not but touch the creative strings of the artist, who is passionate about the game of colors.

During the years of American aggression, Bui Xuan Fai created many graphic works that reflected the theme of war. The artist drew a lot for the newspaper "Vannge" and other mass periodicals.

For his outstanding contribution to the Vietnamese visual arts, he was awarded the highest Ho Chi Minh Prize in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (posthumously-the artist died in 1988).

Saigon collector Chan Hau Tuan opened the Bui Xuan Fai Memorial Museum in his apartment. The idea hadn't come to him by accident. As a 14-year-old schoolboy, Tuan met the artist through a happy combination of circumstances: Fai's son studied with him in the same class. As Tuan recalls, Bui Xuan Fai taught him to love the beautiful and introduced him to the world of painting.

Artist Bui Xuan Fai generously distributed his paintings to friends. So, Chan Hau Tuan turned out to have several works of the famous master. And when the artist died, Chan Hau Tuan, with the permission of Bui Xuan Fai's relatives, moved the deceased's belongings to Hoshi-min.

So the museum "House of Memory of the artist Bui Xuan Fai" was created. Visitors to the museum are greeted with a photo portrait of the artist and, of course, his paintings. The artist's personal belongings are also displayed here: a bicycle, an easel, paints and brushes, a notebook in which Bui Xuan Fai left his last notes.

Having visited many cities in Vietnam, I do not recall a museum (with the exception of the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi, built with our help), where the exhibition was decorated so carefully and touchingly. With sincere love. Modern lamps, high-quality finishing materials, brick-like walls, and copper plaques with the names of paintings on them create a cozy atmosphere.

Artists and artists often visit Chan Hau Tuan's house. They come by themselves and bring their friends, including foreign ones. The host cordially welcomes everyone, shows the Bui Xuan Fai Memorial Museum, paintings by other masters of Vietnamese painting from his collection. And it's all free.

Tran Hau Tuan is dedicated to promoting Vietnamese art. He has already published five large colorful albums of paintings by 20th-century Vietnamese artists.

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