Artist Mai Long (1930-2024) on the balcony of his house in Ngọc Hà village
Artist Mai Long was born in 1930 in Hải Phòng; he followed his parents to Hà Nội in 1944. His parents passed away when he was 15 years old. After that, he returned to Nam Định (his original hometown). From here, destiny brought him to art when a group of artists, including Mr. Vũ Khiêu, visited his house on business. He applied to join the group and began studying in the Resistance Class of artist Tô Ngọc Vân for 3 years.
Artist Mai Long’s house is located in a small alley in Ngọc Hà village, having to go around the famous Ngọc Hà lake with a part of the B52 plane wreckage. Near his house there is also the house of artist Trịnh Quang Vũ, Đức Dụ… The house is simple, probably built a long time ago but still no less majestic, blending with nature and plants, making us feel like we have returned to the decades before.
This house was completed in 1981. In the 80s, this house could be considered the “best” among artists’. The house was built from the money of selling paintings by artist Mai Long.
According to the artist – In the 1970s, he and a number of other artists sold paintings to Xunhasaba. There was money, but it was only to cover family life and have a little extra to sometimes help relatives and friends. Having the funds to build a house like this at that time was very difficul… especially the money from selling works.
The destiny had come, in 1980, while working at an animation studio, the artist in charge of a group of five artists was sent by the agency to the Soviet Union to learn how to make animated films. Besides studying, he spent the rest of his time painting to relieve the nostalgia of being away from his family. He painted everyday.
At that time, he had a Russian friend, writer Andrey Levin, who wrote classic stories that were translated into Vietnamese such as “The Triad Conspiracy”, to visit the artist at the hotel. Writer Andrry Levin really liked artist Mai Long’s paintings so he offered to buy some. Then later, the writer’s friends also liked it. They introduced each other to buy.
After that, artist Mai Long contacted his wife for sending the silk to the Soviet Union so he could paint – asking Mr. Vũ Khoan (1937-2023) to help bring it.
Having the materials, artist Mai Long worked even more enthusiastically. After that, A. Levin offered to help him open an exhibition.
So the first exhibition of artist Mai Long took place smoothly. Almost all the works in the exhibition had been sold out. He had quite a large sum of money. And this land, this house was built from there.
In Mai Long’s system of works, silk paintings are the material that shaped and created his reputation. He shared that he started painting silk around 1955 when he was married. After that, the family went to live in the Northwest.
At that time, the government had a policy of building an Autonomous Region of the Hmong people; He was assigned to be in charge of art at the Cultural Department. Therefore, his paintings had themes about ethnic people and activities in the Northwest region. Most of his works are “magical and romantic realism”. Every work must be like a dream, like poetry and must be beautiful in visual regardless of the topic.
On July 21, 2024, his heart stopped beating. During his 94 years of life, he spent 78 years painting, of which 69 years were associated with silk. He left behind a unique legacy of silk paintings, contributing an important voice in the history of Vietnamese fine arts.
MAI LONG (1930-2024), Planting rice in Cao Bằng. Silk. Private collection, Hà Nội
MAI LONG (1930-2024), A winter in Thuận Châu – Sơn La. Silk. Private collection, Hà Nội
Artist Mai Long painting at his house. Photo taken by Khúc Ngọc Minh in 2017