A day with Hanoi's famous artists

Once upon a Tet holiday in Vietnam, which coincides with the Chinese New Year in Manila, I was at a loss on how to occupy my time in those dreary days when restaurants, coffee shops, groceries and boutiques are closed in the city of Hanoi. On a whim, I called a good friend of mine – Moon, a second-generation Vietnamese artist and web designer who is married to Dan, an American who operates a charity organization in the picturesque metropolis. Apparently, it is the custom a day after Tet for everyone to visit family, relatives and friends. Moon and I arranged to meet at her grandmother’s house, the ancestral home of her family located at Dinh Liet road, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. It was a large and imposing yellow stucco house - the type with curved, pointy roof ends. To get there, you had to pass through a long, narrow alley that suddenly widens into a garden where her grandmother's house stood. Moon once told me that before Vietnam became a socialist state, many of the old families living in Hanoi’s Old Quarter possessed a lot of land. Moon’s family owned several parcels of land around the progressive and commercial Hoan Kiem area. Now, all they had left was this old ancestral house, and neighbors were gradually encroaching on their property. Moon belongs to a family of artists. Her aunt, Ms. Nga, is one of Vietnam’s famous painters who personally trained Moon even after she went to university to study Fine Arts. Because it was a day of going around and visiting old friends, Ms. Nga had the idea of visiting her old artist friends along the Old Quarter – to my delight! A man named Viet Nam First stop was Mr. Vuoc on Cau Go street, just behind what we call The Shark or the 5-storey building where Legend Café and Highland Coffee are located. Climbing the narrow steep stairs is rather typical of Vietnamese terraced houses. We had the good fortune of sitting down with Mr. Vuoc’s wife (Mr. Vuoc was out on an errand). Mr. Vuoc is a contemporary of Moon’s auntie, Ms. Nga. His painting style is a mixture of realism and impressionism. He has a prime location for his gallery on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building, on the corner of Cau Go and Dinh Liet streets. His subjects are mostly ordinary, day-to-day life on Hanoi’s ancient streets. Here and there you get a glimpse of an eye-catching vase of flowers, one of his favorite subjects. After expressing our thanks for Mrs. Vuoc’s generosity, we bid goodbye and proceeded to the house of our second artist. On the way, we ran into Mr. Vuoc who was returning to his gallery. He decided to play tour guide for us, and so we managed to get to no. 56 Cau Go, just a few steps away from his atelier, to visit one of Hanoi’s famous – and obviously one of the most prolific – artists, Mr. Duong Viet Nam. It came as a surprise to get introduced to Mr. Viet Nam: after all, how could someone have the same name as his country?! Mr. Viet Nam was a round-faced and pleasant chap. His studio reflected a lot of light and boasted a most beautiful and romantic window which looked out onto Cau Go street and the terraced houses on the opposite side. A student of Mr. Vuoc, Mr. Viet Nam had a very impressive style, which was quite obvious in his paintings.

A short chat and some really good wine served to our little company was enough to keep Mr. Viet Nam talking – of which I couldn’t understand a word. Lucky for me I had Moon’s husband Dan, who was adept at the local language and translated for poor me. By then it was already past noon and we were getting hungry. One more artist before lunch, so Mr. Vuoc brought us to the gallery of Mr. T. Khoa – the famous Hanoi artist who predominantly painted flowers. Mr. Khoa’s gallery, like Moon’s home, was also at the very end of a little dark alley. At first, there was no one at home, so we came back through the alley – and met his wife and the rest of the brood at the entrance. Back again to the narrow alley, a gracious welcome, a climb of three flights of narrow stairs, and there we were at his painting studio. Mr. Khoa is known among artists for specializing in flowers, all types of flowers! He told us he could come up with at least one flower painting everyday. It doesn’t matter what size it is – small, medium or large. That makes at least seven new paintings a week. Amazing! He also belongs to one of the original and wealthier families of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. It is said that before the “cultural revolution" of Vietnam, which was the beginning of the conversion of the country to a socialist state, Mr. Khoa’s family used to own 81 houses in Hanoi – that represents at least one district of the city! Painter and singer After our simple lunch, our little group of friends took a cab to the house of another famous artist, Mr. Cho Pin. He lives near Truch Bach lake, a tranquil and picturesque lake in central Hanoi. Mr. Cho Pin amazed us with his dedication to his craft. An avid painter of simple street scenes in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Mr. Cho Pin would sit lazily at a café and draw sketches of the quaint street scenes before him. The result is a very detailed painting, surprisingly giving depth and uniqueness to his art. The last artist in residence on our itinerary was Mr. Ngo Cau Giang, who welcomed our little troupe with open arms at his modest and traditional, terraced Vietnamese house on Hang Buom street. Mr. Giang regaled us with tales about his paintings. One of his famous ones -- an ancient Vietnamese King riding an elephant to battle -- caught the group's attention. Mr. Giang is a multi-talented artist. Aside from exhibiting both traditional and modern art, as well as surreal painting styles, he is also an accomplished poet and singer. While viewing his penthouse atelier, we got a taste of his singing prowess. Utterly amazing! Our last stop for the day was a close friend of Ms. Nga – retired teacher Ms. Nhan, who used to teach English in the academe. Her husband is a professional translator of Vietnamese into both French and Mandarin. We hustled ourselves into their cute little home and had steaming cups of tea and sunflower seeds, a Vietnamese delicacy. I felt so lucky that day. At last I got a taste of what it’s like to live in the Old Quarter - among Vietnam’s famous painters. Certainly it was a tour that cannot be found in any Vietnamese guidebook today. – YA, GMANews.TV The author has been working as a freelance writer and communications consultant for several multinational companies in Thailand and Vietnam for more than a decade. She loves traveling to exotic places and meeting quirky people.