Beschreibung:

Le Pho (Vietnamese/French, 1907-2001) "Les Tulipes Rouges et Blanches" oil on canvas signed and inscribed in characters lower right, titled and inscribed with Wally Findlay, Chicago inventory number on stretcher, frame backing with Wally Findlay Galleries label. Framed. 39-1/2" x 25-3/4", framed 48" x 34-5/8" Provenance: Wally Findlay Galleries, Chicago, Illinois; Estate of Margaret "Pat" Breen, Houston, Texas. Notes: "Le Pho's art is an interpretation of joy: joy of flowers, of family affection, presented with an emotion that is at the same time sincere and measured. His still lifes are true portraits of flowers opening under an irresistible luminosity. In his art one sees the beautiful result of the assimilation and the fruition of the blending of two artistic heritages...." - Les Dernieres Nouvelles d' Alsace The still-life offered here exemplifies the review in the preceding lines and embodies the virtuoso of Le Pho's mature "Findlay period", masterly blending the subjects and brushwork of Vietnam with French Post Impressionism. The "Findlay period" marks the post-1960 collaboration of Le Pho with Wally Findlay, and is defined by bright floral patterns and women rendered through bold brushstrokes painted on canvas, instead of the earlier silk he used. While the palette and lack of pictorial depth recall the distinct influence of Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse the flatness, subjects and composition also recall Eastern pictorial traditions that privilege lines and blocks of monochromatic color over modelling, and Eastern reverence for flowers that are imbued with symbolism. The tulips, the centerpiece of this still-life, greatly appealed to Pho as he painted them numerous times; he was attracted by their brilliant colors, by their bell-shaped beauty, by their demand and accessibility in Paris, and quite probably by their Oriental/Occidental colonial history as a metaphor of his own. Flowers in Asian cultures dictate not only names and personalities, but also language: to be beautiful in Vietnamese is to be a "flower of the first rank", to possess the adroit draftsmanship of Le Pho is to have the "pulp of the fingers in the form of a flower", even the plum tree buds in the background of this painting are imbued with meanings of male virility and rebirth. Pho's masterful play of Western and Oriental aesthetics began at an early age in French colonial Indochina at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he studied for five years under the direction of Victor Tardieu, a pupil of Matisse, before continuing his education for another two years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where Pho was greatly influenced by the works of Pierre Bonnard and Odilon Redon In 1933 Pho returned to Hanoi as a professor of painting. In 1937, he left the post after being appointed a delegate and jury member of the International Exposition of Paris. Pho remained in Paris, achieving international success within the year with his first solo exhibition. From 1938 through the 1960s, Pho continued to develop a distinctive Western Oriental style of figurative painting on silk experimenting with various mixed media. In the 1960s, both he and fellow Vietnamese artist Vu Cao Dam collaborated with Wally Findlay to bring elements of Asian and Parisian avant-garde art to the U.S. market and gallery scene, creating a lasting impact on American collectors. Both Pho and Dam have been exhibited worldwide and are in the permanent collections of multiple European, American and Asian institutions.