Rhapsody In Blue is a passionate piece unified by layers of interpolating gestural marks scumbled across the canvas, focusing on the artist’s inner sensibilities towards colour. Poetic forms appear to move across the surface, guided by a sense of life force imbued with spiritual qualities. Merging subtle shades and elusive forms, the artwork is an interpretation of his inner mindscape and lyrical visions of expressive freedom. Bui Xuan Phai, one of the internationally best known Vietnamese artists, was persecuted in 1957 for his support of the Nhan Van movement for political and cultural freedom, and was only ‘rehabilitated’ in 1984, when he was allowed to hold his first solo. In 1996, he was amply vindicated when he was posthumously awarded the coveted Ho Chi Minh Prize. He graduated from the Fine Arts College of IndoChina in 1946, and was involved in the anti-French resistance in Viet Bac and the August 1954 Revolution in Hanoi. He was dubbed one of the Four Pillars of Vietnamese Art, the others being Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Duong Bich Lien and Nguyen Sang.