Nguyen Xuan Huy
Mission Phoenix, 2025, oil on canvas, 270 x 414 cm, 68400 Euro
In 2025, Nguyen Xuan Huy created his painting “Mission Phoenix.” We are exhibiting it for the first time in Karlsruhe. In ancient Greece and Egypt, the phoenix was considered a legendary eagle-like bird that burst into flames at the end of its long life and left behind an egg in the ashes, from which it hatched again. The peacock-like mythical creature Fenghuang, associated with fire, is referred to as the “Chinese phoenix.” Nguyen Xuan Huy layers the different aspects of the phoenix concept into a monumental painting with numerous allusions: the Nike of Samothrace, a sculpture now kept in the Louvre, represents ancient Greece, while charred roof beams are reminiscent of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019.
In 2025, Nguyen Xuan Huy created his painting “Mission Phoenix.” We are exhibiting it for the first time in Karlsruhe. In ancient Greece and Egypt, the phoenix was considered a legendary eagle-like bird that burst into flames at the end of its long life and left behind an egg in the ashes, from which it hatched again. The peacock-like mythical creature Fenghuang, associated with fire, is referred to as the “Chinese phoenix.” Nguyen Xuan Huy layers the different aspects of the phoenix concept into a monumental painting with numerous allusions: the Nike of Samothrace, a sculpture now kept in the Louvre, represents ancient Greece, while charred roof beams are reminiscent of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019.
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