Mai Trung Thu (1906 – 1980) | L'aîeul ... sourd

Acquired from Galerie de Deauville (Apestéguy) in 1973, and thence by descent to the present owner.

Le monde de Maï-Thu, Galerie Vendôme, Paris, 1974

L’aïeul ... sourd, Mai-Thu condenses this subject into a vertical composition of remarkable psychological intensity. A patriarch with immaculate white hair and beard, dressed in a deep blue robe, embraces two children within a circle of intimacy and affection. One of them leans toward his ear in a gesture of confidence, while the elder slightly inclines his head and raises his hand to his ear in order to hear more clearly. Filled with tenderness and subtle humor, the scene immediately reveals its autobiographical significance.

The original title, L’aïeul ... sourd, must be preserved in its entirety, including the meaningful three suspension dots, already used by the artist in another dedication depicting a grandfather straining to listen. This suspended punctuation introduces a note of modesty and self-deprecating humor in the face of a disability that the artist experienced on a deeply personal level.

This allusion takes on particular resonance in light of Mai-Thu’s personal journey. As accomplished a musician as he was a painter, he was trained in traditional Vietnamese music in the imperial city of Huế, where he taught drawing and notably developed great mastery of the đàn độc huyền, the Vietnamese monochord. After settling in France, he continued this musical practice through radio broadcasts and recordings made alongside Trần Văn Khê, with whom he was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. However, a progressive hearing loss—most likely resulting from treatments received after contracting tuberculosis in the 1950s—eventually forced him to limit this activity, which had been essential to his creative balance.

Rather than concealing this vulnerability, Mai-Thu chose here to translate it into imagery with infinite delicacy. Through the silent dialogue between old age and childhood, the artist transforms a profoundly personal experience into a universal scene, where the transmission of knowledge gives way to an even more intimate form of transmission: that of tenderness, listening, and memory. L’aïeul ... sourd stands as one of the most moving and deeply personal testimonies of Mai-Thu’s final creative period. Executed only one year before the major Paris exhibition Le Monde de MAI-THU (1974–1975), this work forms part of a particularly sought-after group of late compositions