Artist Le Huy Tiep - talented and lonely

(Baonghean) - Few people know that this talented and lonely artist from Nghe An had a life full of events.

When I entered the apartment of artist Le Huy Tiep in My Dinh (Hanoi), he was busy washing wine glasses. In the spacious and lonely corner of the house, he seemed to be very familiar with living alone, and was very excited about cooking. He said: “I love cooking and spend more time on it than any other work, including painting.”

Talking about food, he said: “I remember the old nights when I stayed up with my mother to make jam for Tet. It was my mother who taught me how to make jams and many other dishes, and passed on to me the joy of cooking.”

Artist Le Huy Tiep in a corner of his house. Photo: T. Vinh

When searching through his memories, Le Huy Tiep suddenly became a completely different person. He was like someone searching in a tunnel, still flickering somewhere a magical light guiding the way. The American bombing that nearly killed him in 1965, when he was a 15-year-old boy on his way from Nghe An to Hanoi to get medical treatment and pursue his dream of painting, blurred a part of his memory. The memory that he always believed was the most beautiful and pure part of him. Few people knew that this talented and lonely artist had a life full of events.

In 1929, his father, then a young intellectual, was expelled from school and exiled to his hometown Nghi Loc (Nghe An) because of his active participation in the student movement at the National School in Hue. When the young man returned to his hometown, he still wanted to contact the revolutionary organization. His superiors introduced him to someone to help him with his activities and he was completely surprised when that person was a woman.

"Waiting" - oil painting by Le Huy Tiep. Photo: T. Vinh

After a period of working together, he realized that he loved that comrade, even though he knew that she was older than him. But what was even more surprising was that when he proposed, she refused. That female revolutionary cadre refused not because of her age but because during those difficult days, she knew that she was facing danger, even risking her life. He said that if she refused, he would not marry anyone else. Indeed, not long after that, she was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured in Vinh prison.

It was not until after the August Revolution that they met again. At this time, he was a member of the Provincial Party Committee, her superior officer, and the most surprising thing was that he had been waiting for her for more than 10 years. Once again, he reported to the organization and proposed to her, but she refused again. She was afraid that the torture had made her lose her ability to be a mother. But then, with his sincere heart and the organization's persuasion, she accepted. When their wedding was held (in 1948), the good news was published in the provincial newspaper.

"Under the bottom" - a unique print by Le Huy Tiep. Photo: T. Vinh

Two years later, a miracle happened to them. The female revolutionary soldier Nguyen Thi Thiu gave birth to a son. The boy Le Huy Tiep was the crystallization of a love story that the press described as "rarely faithful". He was also the only child of the family of the two revolutionary soldiers Le Huy Diep and Nguyen Thi Thiu. Mr. Diep was the former Permanent Vice President of the Nghe An Fatherland Front. Mrs. Thiu (a fellow revolutionary activist with Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and Ms. Nguyen Thi Quang Thai) was the President of the Nghe An Provincial Women's Union and Head of the Nghe An National Assembly Delegation, term II.

In 1965, on the way from Nghe An to Hanoi for medical treatment, Le Huy Tiep encountered a bomb attack by the American army and fell on the side of the road. After 3 days in a coma, the injuries caused him to lose part of his memory because his memory was seriously affected. Since then, every time Tet comes, he sits and ponders. He longs to call back his memories. He longs to see clearly himself in his childhood days, the Tet holidays with his parents. He talks about his restless feeling when he sees the spring buds sprouting on the porch. There is a green area somewhere, once radiant in him.

Eva returns - oil painting by Le Huy Tiep. Photo: T. Vinh

His story kept making me think about nostalgia and forgetting. Somewhere in our busy lives, something has slipped away and receded into layers of oblivion, but the fact that it once existed is real, the fact that it once made people happy or sad is real. Forgetting, in some ways, is also the other side of memory. Maybe it is the void that people long for and happily want to return to. Just like being away from home is just a way to live with the homeland, in another part of the mind.

Le Huy Tiep was the same, he did not lose anything after that strange accident in 1965. It was just that his memory was covered up to make room for what people call nostalgia. And then on every step of his life, he lived to be worthy of the honor of being the late only child of his forty-four-year-old mother, born in the year of poverty in Anh Son, a mother who had been a staunch revolutionary cadre during the war.

"Creation" - oil painting by Le Huy Tiep. Photo: T. Vinh.

And so in each painting, Le Huy Tiep paints as if he wants to forever preserve with canvas and colors the world he once knew. That is also the way the artist can live with his memories, present and future, one more time, despite the memories and forgetfulness.

The paintings contain his thoughts and concerns about a world full of flavors and colors, full of joy and sadness, light and dark, light and dark... Like a floral scent, a chirping bird, a melodious piece of music, like a delicious dish placed on a table in an elegant room, each painting awakens the senses of the viewer, bringing them back to a beautiful dream that is also their own being.

Vinh - An