Christie's: The Tuan Pham Collection or The Conquest of the West, Hong Kong, 29 November 2019
To resist, to build, to share.
These are strong words Tuan Pham lived by since he left his native Vietnam and arrived on the American soil in 1975 – the journey of a lifetime.
An amazing amount of courage and energy was needed then in those difficult early days.
Tuan Pham, when recalling his past, tells of so many events in his life that forced him as a young boy to become a self-made man, alone, taking on independence early and full responsibility. This has been discussed in the earlier part of the collection, and we invite our readers to refer to that first part offered in May 2019 for the details.
To resist. Against an adverse fate to build: a family, a successful recognised business. And also to build a collection of Vietnamese art.
To resist, to build and now to share with new collectors, this Collection of exceptional quality.
The second part of the collection consists of sixteen paintings executed by four artists, between 1934 and 1972. Three of the paintings are executed in Vietnam and thirteen in France.
Christie's, Hong Kong, 24 November 2019
Nguyen Phan Chanh's, La femme dans la rizière (The Woman in the Rice Fields) (1936) describes a changing world, Le Pho 's Femme assise (Sitting Lady) (1934), a temptation for Asia that would not succeed and an ensemble of paintings created between 1945 and 1972 all expressing a freedom that must be conquered. In the same way, Tuan Pham made his own "conquest of the West", crafted his destiny, transcending the old cliché of an ideology at the end of its rope.
It is because he is himself a great painter that Mai Thu honors Ingres in Nue (Nude). It is because he is himself a great painter that Vu Cao Dam celebrates the "Libération" of France in 1945 Couple, it is because he is himself a great painter that Le Pho succumbs the temptation for Findlay Fleurs (Flowers) and Le printemps (Spring). It is because he is himself a great painter that Nguyen Phan Chanh knows that his world is rapidly changing La femme dans la rizière (The Woman in the Rice Fields). And we could come up with many other examples. "Great" because the great artists follow a quest in search of the universal. Any other way would be a waste of time. In art nothing is a complement, everything must come as a supplement.
This painting of liberation, this "conquest of the West", this adherence to a second wind - all these set the essential foundation of the Tuan Pham Collection, particularly in this second part.
No one will be surprised to know that the child of Saigon and the entrepreneur of San Diego are at peace built on these positive values.
To find freedom through liberation is the theme of Tuan Pham's Collection. The victory over determinism. A smile to destiny. Here are the ideals that link Tuan Pham to his collection.
The ensemble of works presented here stands out by a distinctive execution and a meaning that does not appear at first sight: the delight of the aesthete but, as well, a messianism in the true collector.
Also to honour Tuan Pham's taste for poetry, we chose to insert a few verses to the description of paintings, not to illustrate them but mostly to extend them, so that sounds and colours resonate.
Emily Dickinson wrote:
"I fumble at my Childhood's Prayer –
Sosoontobeachild – nomore– Eternity – I'm coming – Sir –
Master – I've seen the Face – before – "
Just a step, nothing else. Merci, Docteur Pham.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art
