[San Francisco Chronicle 1996]
HANOI, Vietnam - With its low wooden tables arranged in a dimly lit room thick with cigarette smoke and the rich aroma of Vietnamese coffee, Cafe Lam resembles other coffeehouses in the historic old quarter of Hanoi.
But one glance at the cracked and peeling walls informs visitors that this is no ordinary cafe. Nearly every square inch is occupied by the paintings of some of Vietnam's most distinguished modern artists.
The impresario of this improbable exhibit is Nguyen Van Lam, the cafe's 66-year-old owner. For nearly half a century, Mr. Lam has been selling strong coffee and pursuing his passion for fine art. In the process, local art critics and supporters say, he has quietly amassed one of the world's finest collections of 20th century Vietnamese paintings and prints.
The cafe, which occupies the ground floor of a dilapidated two-story building on a busy commercial street north of Hoan Kiem Lake, provides a tantalizing introduction to Mr. Lam's breathtaking trove. The bulk of the collection lies beyond the beaded curtain that separates the cafe from Mr. Lam's modest living quarters.
Scores of paintings line the walls of a small downstairs living room and a larger sleeping and storage space on the second floor. Hundreds of other pieces are scattered on tabletops and stacked in dusty leather portfolios and cardboard boxes.
“Lam has quietly amassed one of the world’s finest collections of 20th century Vietnamese paintings and prints.”
In all, the collection includes more than 1,000 works ranging from oil, watercolor and silk paintings to woodblocks, calligraphy and chalk drawings.
Many of the artists represented in the collection were students at Hanoi's famed Ecole des Beaux Arts de L'Indochine, established by the French colonial regime in 1925, which later became the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. Their work, which often combines Western and Asian techniques, has had a powerful influence on younger generations of Vietnamese artists.
Among the major artists represented in the collection are Bui Xuan Phai, renowned for his muted, dreamlike renderings of Hanoi's ancient streets; Nguyen Sang, a master of Vietnamese lacquer painting; Du'o'ng Bich Lien, known for his book and magazine illustrations and theatrical sets; and Van Cao, a painter and poet who is also one of Vietnam's most famous composers.
For many years, Mr. Lam was better known for his robust coffee - brewed from a secret blend of spices and beans grown in the lush highlands of northern Vietnam - than for his wealth of fine art.
He began selling coffee in 1950 from a cart at Chi Linh Park in central Hanoi, where many of his customers were bureaucrats from nearby government offices. The business became so successful, Mr. Lam says, that the government asked him to relocate because workers were spending too much time sitting around the park sipping coffee and not enough time behind their desks.
In the mid-1950s, Mr. Lam opened a cafe on Hang Voi Street in the heart of the old quarter. The business soon attracted a loyal clientele of neighborhood residents, intellectuals and students from the nearby arts school who found the cafe a convivial refuge. A few years later, he bought the building at 60 Nguyen Huu Huan where he still lives and works.
Over the years, Mr. Lam befriended many of the young artists who frequented his cafe. During the turbulent years before and during the war with the United States, many of the artists were struggling to put food on their tables and paint on their canvases. Mr. Lam often lent them money to purchase the materials they needed to practice their art.
Mr. Lam recalls one afternoon when his friend Mr. Phai confided that a long-planned sojourn in the country would have to be postponed because he didn't have the money to buy painting materials. Mr. Lam promptly went to his cash box and withdrew enough dong to finance the trip.
Mr. Phai, like other artists who benefited from Mr. Lam's largess, repaid his patron in the only currency at his disposal - his artwork.
"Mr. Lam has helped preserve an important part of Vietnamese culture," said Thai Ba Van, a Hanoi art critic and longtime friend of Mr. Lam's. "He has assembled an outstanding body of work. But what makes his collection special is the warm relationship he has with the artists."
A small, frail man with a sallow complexion and a taciturn demeanor, Mr. Lam says he has always admired artists because of their ability to find inspiration and beauty that others often overlook.
"I respect artists because they have a generous spirit," Mr. Lam said, as he sat in his cozily cluttered living room beneath a brooding portrait of himself painted in 1971 by Mr. Cao. "They give everything to their art and ask nothing in return. It is a characteristic very specific to artists."
“He has weak eyes but he sees the beauty of art, and that is why I love him.”
A poem written by Mr. Cao shortly before he died pays tribute to the artist's longtime friend and patron. "He has weak eyes," Mr. Cao wrote, referring to Mr. Lam's poor eyesight, "but he sees the beauty of art, and that is why I love him."
A wood cabinet in Mr. Lam's living room is filled with literature reflecting his lifelong devotion to art - books about painters as well as handwritten poems and other manuscripts composed by friends. It also contains a calendar book listing the birth dates and - more often these days - the dates of death of his artist friends.
The past few years have been particularly difficult for Mr. Lam. Mr. Phai and Mr. Sang, two of his favorite artists, died in 1988, and Mr. Cao passed away last year. But the hardest blow was the death last year of his wife of 40 years.
Until recently, Mr. Lam's remarkable collection was virtually unknown outside the small circle of friends and customers who frequented the cafe. It wasn't until the late 1980s, after the government adopted a more open economic policy that promoted free enterprise, that the collection began to attract attention.
In the past few years, his paintings have appeared in several exhibits in Hanoi, and last summer, a major show devoted to the collection was mounted in Ho Chi Minh City - the first time any of his paintings had appeared outside the capital city.
Mr. Lam has gone to great lengths to preserve his cherished cache. During the war, when most of his family fled Hanoi, the paintings were moved to an air-raid shelter to protect them from U.S. bombing. Although they survived, moisture caused serious damage to some of the works.
These days, Mr. Lam's greatest fear is that his art will fall victim to neglect and the growing appetite of foreign collectors. In an effort to preserve the collection and make it more accessible to the public, he is hoping to raise money to convert his building on Nguyen Huu Huan into a museum. He estimates that it will cost about $100,000 to accomplish this ambitious goal.
"Vietnam is opening up, and now many foreign people are coming here to buy our art," Mr. Lam said. "I am afraid that our Vietnamese culture will disappear. I want to preserve something for future generations."
In a country still struggling to recover from decades of warfare and economic stagnation, government officials in Hanoi have shown little interest in Mr. Lam's project. He has contacted several private foundations and international aid organizations, but thus far his efforts have met with little success.
In an effort to raise funds for the museum, Mr. Lam has sold several minor works. So far, he has resisted selling more important pieces. But Mr. Lam, who is in delicate health, worries that time may be running out. Unless a savior emerges in the near future, he says, he may be forced to sacrifice part of his collection to save the rest.
Top: Hànội 1946 by Bùi Xuân Phái. Musée Annam / Collection de Trần-hậu-Tuấn.
