See Phung Pham 'cubism'

Ellen Berends, former Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands to Vietnam, was attracted by two paintings by artist Phung Pham at first sight. Work Proud Drawing of a Northern woman in traditional clothing. Love kisses is a screen with 4 large panels. 

“I was blown away by the boldness, passion and originality of the work. It turned out that this was a painting by Phung Pham. As with Proud, I decided to put all my savings into buying the painting. This is truly a work of art that I want to enjoy every day," Ellen Berends said about the time of purchase Love kisses.

It's understandable that Ellen Berends doesn't know Mr. Phung Pham. Mr. Phung Pham is an almost reclusive author, although his works have won a number of domestic awards and brought them abroad. Throughout his creative life, especially when Ellen was in Vietnam, he never had a personal exhibition. Even now, at the age of 91, Mr. Phung Pham had his first personal exhibition and his first book introducing his author's work. 

Mr. Phung Pham is a classmate of a generation of talented artists such as Hoang Tram, Kim Bach, Mong Bich, Duong Ngoc Canh... at Vietnam College of Fine Arts. They had great teachers like Tran Van Can, Sy Ngoc, Luong Xuan Nhi... But Mr. Pham stopped studying drawing in the 9th course of Vietnam College of Fine Arts for unknown reasons during the period of creative personalities outside the country. Socialist practice can be stopped at any time. He worked at Vietnam Animation Studio until his retirement.

Art researcher Bui Nhu Huong said that since the 1970s, Phung Pham has produced beautiful woodblock prints. “Just two pure, simple black and white colors, sung by the melodies of the lines. Here, lines are key. Lines create melody and rhythm, create movement, light, water waves, and create decorative details in the composition, background, and array. Lines do everything. The color depends on that and follows," Ms. Huong assessed.

Ms. Bui Nhu Huong also observed the composition process, which was also the process of "cubization" in his compositions. According to her, Phung Pham's creative process consistently follows his own visual language, which can be called "modernization" or "cubism." This process is divided into two stages.

In the early stages, in the 1970s - 1980s, his works were still close to reality, following traditional folk aesthetics, such as Drought resistant, Silver water with golden rice… “An inevitable mentality when the mainstream, official, and exclusive art line at that time was still socialist reality. But during this period, the artist quietly produced works that were prophetic, ahead of modern graphic language, far different from traditional folk aesthetics," Ms. Huong said.

In the second stage, when innovation came in 1986, in the general trend of freedom of creation in the country's literature, Mr. Phung Pham already had his own path, so he continued to commit to the next stage... " At that period, Phung Pham had the most drastic and decisive changes and transformations in both language and artistic perspective," Ms. Huong assessed.

In Phung Pham's personal exhibition, we can see many topics that he pursued in many works. They move away from realistic depictions towards the flexibility of shapes. He placed squares, circles, and triangles next to each other, then from there resonated a strong rhythm. That makes his paintings of productive labor even more irresistible.

In works describing farming work such as: Going to transplant I, Go to transplant II, Transplant at night... the leaf raincoats are described as large rectangles, assembled from rows of triangles depicting leaves next to each other. The hands are described as square like a large hair comb. The hat and leggings that wrap around the legs are as rich in rhythm as the shirt... That makes transplants strong and modern.

There are also works in the exhibition that make viewers silent because of the desire to describe the identity that Mr. Phung Pham conveys. Work Stepchild Drawing of a black girl, a mixed-race child during the Vietnam War, being bathed by her mother. He described her as strong brown-black masses. Only sadness is still somewhere in the tightly closed eyes.

Another work that is also very descriptive is Transplant acupuncture. There, Mr. Phung Pham chose the perspective from behind... the character's butt. The character's physique is captured in the beauty of this round butt. A bold look.

Even though he debuted late, Phung Pham with his personal exhibition still managed to show an author who is both brave and modern, with a compassionate outlook. In a world that is getting flatter day by day, his artistic voice is very unique and easily attracts sympathy.