Testimonials
VOLKER WISSING
Federal Minister of Digital Affairs and Transport of Germany; General Secretary of the Free Democratic Party; Deputy Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate (2016-2021)
I would like to thank you for your hospitality and warm welcome in your home Boi Tran Garden. We were very impressed with your paintings and especially the beautiful garden that you have created. My companion and I really enjoyed the contented evening spent with you thanks to your presence and kindness.
WILLIAM DREA ADAMS
American Intellectual; Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities (2014-2017); President, Colby College (2000-2014); President, Bucknell University (1995-2000)
Dear Bem,
Thank you for the lovely dinner and the honour of spending time in the home and garden gallery of Madame Boi Tran. It was a very memorable evening and we are very grateful.
It will be certainly one of the highlights of our trip.
THOMAS J VALLELY
Senior Advisor, Mainland Southeast Asia, Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center; Founder, Harvard Vietnam Program (1989), Fulbright School HCMC (1994)
Thank I remember very fondly our meeting at your home.
Mostly, I shared respect for your pioneer-ship for making Hue's artistic rebirth a reality.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN
American Celebrity Chef, Author, Travel Documentarian
Boi Tran is a painter and something of a throwback, an anomaly, a creature from another, earlier time in the life of the onetime Imperial City. She lives in an area called Thien An Hill, in a magnificently restored compound. These traditional wooden houses were once part of the regal style, with sloped grooves to handle the rainy Hue weather. But most importantly, she features a garden at the centre which follows the eastern philosophy that all things originate from a single source and expand in all directions. She also cooks, magnificently from a repertoire of Imperial Hue-era dishes numbering over 100. Back in dynastic times, the Emperors demanded variety: in wives, of whom they would sometimes have over 100, and in food, the menus of the 19th Century Imperial Palaces boasted new dishes every night. Small, flavorful, and beautifully presented. And that culinary tradition, which gave Hue its reputation as a food capital, continues today.
URI D HERSCHER
American Rabbi, Academic; Executive Committee, WorkingNation; Founding President and CEO, Skirball Cultural Center
Bem, you treated us to such a joyful experience in the home of your mother surrounded by her portraits of beauty. You were a magnificent host. Your words came from your heart and entered ours and our words came from our hearts and were meant to enter yours. It was a perfect evening of companionship.
JEAN-FRANÇOIS HUBERT
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art, Christie's
Boi Tran knows that passion, this peppery spice of time, reveals the flavours of life but that the suffering which it engenders offers more slumber without night than nights without sleep. She lives and paints in her magic garden nestled on Thien An Hill in Hue, proud but comforting, where the wind frightens the centuries old pine trees, and the bashful, even prudish, flowers triumph over the rain. A place where Time's machine, this thief of joys, arrests itself... from time to time for the greatest happiness of the visitor.
There is no history without a place.
There are places without measure and histories beyond all time.
Elegant moments and secret places.
Patches of eternity and jolted thoughts.
To verify this, one must know Boi Tran.
BUU Y
Professor, the Great Francophile of the former Imperial capital of Hue
At different times, several art galleries have been born but not actually fulfilled and expected en masse.
How ungrateful is it?
Representing the land of cultural, art tradition and tourism and various schools, Hue has given birth to numerous talents with her famous mountain and river, and said to itself “stand up”, and gotten confidence from everybody.
One no art exhibitions have been organized with their actual sense, there would not have been any complete, conventional conformality to the land and the history.
NGUYEN TRUNG
Artist; Co-founder, Young Artists Association in HCMC (1966)
Amongst various subjects expressed in Boi Tran’s creation and passion for art, her favourite interpretation is depictions of the feminine beauty of Vietnamese women, pure maternity, and poetic nature. Currently residing on Thien An Hill – one of the most beautiful landmarks of Hue where it is known for its endless rows of evergreen trees – Boi Tran, with a sensible heart and gifted talent of an artist, fully perceives the artistic and literary beauty of nature that comes right out from her magnificent garden and then conveys that beauty most aesthetically to her works.
TRINH CONG SON
Musician
In this city there comes forth an art gallery that is bearing the heart and the yearning for beauty. This has created an indication of a luxurious gesture to the beloved people and made better an ambience within the structures, greenness of the grass and of the old citadel.
Even if small or not, this art gallery is a monument in the city; its appearance will be remembered for ever.
Returning to the old city…, to this art gallery, one feels that as he or she is coming back to see a sweetheart, who one will miss and love and never forget for a moment.
HAI NGUYEN
Director, Global Vietnam Wars Studies Initiative, Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School
In an excellent state of preservation after ages, painter Luu Ly now bequeaths his precious treasure to Boi Tran. By a mere coincidence, the Fall-Winter art class held by Than Trong Su linked to the sketchbook and eventually, returned to Boi Tran.
Luu Ly believes that Boi Tran will take on the perpetuation and introduce these profound sketches to the world.
KF SEETOH
Singapore Food Ambassador, Mankasutra Founder, Photographer, TV Host
There was a visit to another dimension of food glory, a ride out to visit Boi Tran Garden to meet Madame Boi Tran herself, a living legend of an artist and chef. The place, the green, manicured and curated garden and yards with French and local Hue touches plus the food, served like how the Royals once ate (well almost, except we were too noisy and gushed at her platters).
My late buddy Anthony Bourdain visited and featured it before, but I had to take the mickey out of his very staid visit “Yes, hahahahaha, that’s how he was, you are on point”, said a very warm and endearing Madame Boi Tran recalling his visit. Bless you Tony, you paved the way here.
BEN SELKOW
Emmy-nominated Documentary Film, Television Director, Executive Producer at HBO, Netflix, CNN, NAT GEO, Discovery Channel, PBS/World Channel
Thank you so much for the grace, beauty and magnificence of your food and home. It's such an honour to have an actual artefact from the artist who touched me so deeply while I was there. Your grace and hospitality were so appreciated for the television scene we filmed. I know Tony and the whole were very, very moved. I was so touched by your selflessness, grace, warmth, and infinite love as a young parent it is a model for me. Having your painting in my house, and keeping an eye on my young family and I is such a gift. Thank you. I'm so lucky to have the memories of the experience with you and a tangible artefact to keep in our home.