Mai Van Hien

----- Original Message -----

From: "Nguyen Qui Duc" <DNguyen@KQED.org>

To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>; "Vietnam Studies

Group"

<vsg@u.washington.edu>

Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 7:41 AM

Subject: RE: [Vsg] Mai Van Hien passes away

Here's a remembrance if you can access this website

http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/showFile.php?res=7154&rb=0202

From: Nora Taylor

To: Vietnam Studies Group

Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 7:33 AM

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Mai Van Hien passes away

Dear List,

I just heard that the artist Mai Van Hien passed away on May 9. Born in 1923, Hien joined the Viet Minh as an artist and was the designer of the first "Dong" bill. In 1954, he sketched soldiers as they prepared for the siege at Dien Bien Phu and was there on the morning of May 8 when the French surrendered. In the 1950s he acted as Ho Chi Minh's cultural advisor and traveled to Socialist bloc countries with exhibitions of Vietnamese art. His paintings are featured in the Vietnam Museum of Art in Hanoi and I have written about him in my book Painters in Hanoi . In the 1990s, he could be seen at the 16 Ngo Quyen exhibition house chatting with newly arrived tourists and invited many to his home. Perhaps some of you have met him. He was one of 10 artists who lived at 65 Nguyen Thai Hoc street, now a designated cultural landmark (di tich van hoa)

He was a modest man and lived in a single room of that house for 50 years, most of which with his wife and two daughters. I visited him very often in the 1990s and last saw him in June 2005. He always had stories about his life on the Ho Chi Minh trail, hung pictures of him explaining art to Ho Chi Minh and was a valuable resource for me on the 1940s and 1950s art world in Hanoi. He hid drawings under his bed and would pull them out periodically. He was featured in the film by Fleur Albert "Le Silence des Rizieres" (2004) For the past 6 years, he was bed ridden but still received guests. He had a great sense of humour and loved to tell jokes. You can find an obituary in Lao Dong on the web. But I haven't seen any others. For those of you in Hanoi, you will no doubt encounter huge crowds paying homage to him at the Arts Association at 51 Tran Hung Dao street tomorrow.

If you want to know more about the artist, I am happy to send along references and pictures.

Nora Taylor