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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Self Portrait - oil on canvas - 75x65cm |
NGUYEN XUAN KHANH
Born: 1969, Hai Phong City, Vietnam
Death: 2001, Saigon, Vietnam
Khanh has loved painting since he was a
little boy; so he asked his parents to let him join the club for gifted
children in Hai Phong City. Although his father didn’t fully agree, Khanh
received strong support from his mother. His father at last acquiesced to his
wife and child.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - My Son - oil on canvas - 83x96cm |
The class for gifted children taught them
to draw daily-life objects such as a rice bowl, tea cup, a leaf...It took a
long time for most children to accomplish the lesson. For Khanh, however, those
were simple exercises.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Portrait - oil on canvas - 80x65cm |
Khanh's gift for drawing led him to a job with
a renowned and pernickety reproduction ceramics producer in Hai Phong City. His
finesse allowed him to reproduce subtle textures of ceramic from Tsung, Yuen,
Tang era. The pay wasn’t bad, but Khanh didn't want to be a copyist. His dream
was to be a visual artist.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Young Girl and Lotus - Gouache on paper - 70x60cm |
Khanh's father was a high school teacher
in Hai Phong. He was the younger brother of Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vinh, the former
commander of the Vietnam Republic Air Forces under President Ngo Dinh Diem
(South Vietnam). With such identity, it was not easy for him to to keep his
post on the pulpit in North Vietnam before 1975. That background caused several
troubles for Khanh as well. His father always kept this problem in mind. Because
Khanh was also gifted in mathematics, his father hoped Khanh could go far in
Sciences. But with Khanh, family background was no matter; he only liked
painting and wished to become a visual artist.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Flowers - oil on canvas - 83x96cm |
Khanh participated in many art exhibitions
in Hai Phong City such as exhibitions for children, for young artists, for
stable and renowned artists. Hai Phong senior artists used to consider Khanh as
a young fellow of their artistic group.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Landscape - oil on canvas - 83x96cm |
At a two men show together with artist Dao
Hai Phong in Hanoi in 1990, 2 gouache drawings by Khanh were sold at US$200. It
was the first time Khanh earned money from his art-works, and it was a great
sum in the northern of Vietnam at that time.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Tam Bac Riverside - oil on canvas - 91x117cm |
In 1993, Khanh was awarded Nguyen Binh
Khiem Prize of Hai Phong City.
In 1993, Khanh got a job as illustrator
and designer for the magazine THE GIOI MOI (NEW WORLD) of National Education
Department, and moved to Saigon. The magazine office was only 100 meters away
from Tu Do (Liberty) Gallery. Thanks to that, we could canvass Khanh's works
since his first week in Saigon.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Two Kerosene Lamps - oil on canvas - 65x80cm |
Khanh brought in all his works from the
North: about 50 gouache and water color on paper drawings. Most of them were
landscape, seascape; a few were human and still life. The quantity of each
category demonstrated Khanh's forte in landscape, especially his exquisite and
inspiring rendition of Tam Bac river. Tam Bac is the river which bisects Hai
Phong City.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Boats - oil on canvas - 80x50cm |
With artistic view, Khanh conveyed a
sincere love for his hometown with floating boats on the river, and houses along
the banks. Khanh's works spoke his own language and soon became popular. More
than half of the drawings Khanh brought to Tu Do Gallery were sold in the first
month.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Portrait - oil on canvas - 75x65cm |
I proposed Khanh to try his hand with oil
color. Marvelously! Khanh succeed with the very first oil painting. Khanh's oil
landscapes were deeper, more sparkling and lively than his gouaches and water
color. Khanh's portraits were also so charming, his still lives and flowers, dainty.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Seaside - oil on canvas - 100x100cm |
Khanh threw broad brush strokes, full of
self-confidence, with lively and bright colors. Khanh used crude and
antagonistic colors such as blue, green, red, yellow...then he created
intermediary with soft light shadow lines, harmonizing the oppositions of
colors. Nguyen Xuan Khanh's oil paintings were soon welcomed by art lovers,
especially by serious collectors.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Two Friends - oil on canvas - 83x96cm |
Nguyen Xuan Khanh's art is a beautiful union
between Impressionism and Fauvism. Whether it was a scene of splendor dawn at
sea, or a bright slanting sun-beams floodlighted on a lonely shrine at the top
of a hill; all of them were magnificent, charming and romantics. Khanh drew
comfortably like a virtuoso musician who already mastered his instrument. He
didn't have to pay any attention to technique and let his soul fully immerse
with the sounds of music. Observing Khanh working, I felt as if the brush in his
hand had been totally forgotten and Khanh was stretching his soul onto the
canvas.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Boats and Sea - oil on canvas - 65x95cm |
When asked why he preferred landscape to
other categories, Khanh answered “Because I love graceful sceneries, at times
they were so stunning that I wished to lay down my life so my last moment would
be one of sublime beauty.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Highland - oil on canvas - 60x80cm |
Khanh quit his good job at NEW WORLD
Magazine to reserve all of his time and mind for artistic works.
Khanh held many painting exhibitions in
Vietnam. His first exhibition abroad occurred in 1997 at H&S Gallery in
Brussels, Belgium. His second exhibition outside of Vietnam was at Atrium
Gallery, Melbourne, Australia in 2000. Both those exhibitions were successfully
in terms of finance as well as public opinion.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Street - oil on canvas - 59x79cm |
Only a few months after his exhibition in
Melbourne in 2000, Nguyen Xuan Khanh passed away on 20 March 2001, after a
traffic accident at Seventh District, Saigon. He was 32 years old at that time.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Portrait - oil on canvas - 60x55cm |
From 1993 until his last day, Nguyen Xuan
Khanh was a professional artist, lived by his art works. Khanh created about
400 artworks during this period. Most of them are oil on canvas; 70 percent of
which had been collected by art lovers through Tu Do Gallery.
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| Nguyen Xuan Khanh - Tam Bac River - oil on canvas - 83x96cm |
I hope there would be some further studies
which evaluate Nguyen Xuan Khanh's art fairly and thoroughly.
San Francisco
1-October-2014
