For Sale Painting by Pham An Hai

Winter

Acryl on canvas

Signed and dated '03  l.r.

signed, dated and titled on the reverse

100*100 cm (unframed)

Provenance: Apricot Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam 

Biography Pham An Hai

At the age of 30 - the age of confidence and maturity - Pham An Hai (Hanoi 1967) had his first exhibition of highly expressive painting in Hanoi and established himself as one of the most recognizable young artists. Expressionist artwork is unusual in Vietnamese art, which usually promotes softness, grace and subtlety.

Until then, Pham sometimes drew realistic portraits, like most abstractionists. Kandinsky started from landscapes, Pham An Hai of the old streets of Hanoi. However, Pham went further, blurring his image, creating a sort of x-ray of the artist's inner  feelings for Hanoi. His lines and strokes that form the structure and his adept layering of pigment and use of space generate clever color schemes.

Despite not being representative, his abstract art still vaguely reflects a certain type of landscape – spring, autumn or, as this one winter, the reflection of the water surface or the span of a bridge, a suburb or a street at night.

Over the past two decades, his abstract paintings have become known in Vietnam. Several artists even claim that they stem from distant primitive art or from world-famous Zen art. However, not many artists are well versed in this art genre. We can see Pham An Hai among those rare artists.