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Biography of Pham Ngoc Tuan
The painter and multidisciplinary artist Pham Ngoc Tuan was born in 1929 in Hanoi, Vietnam. In 1946-1947, he studied in his hometown, at the Fine Arts College. The young man was barely twenty years old when he decided, in 1949, to come and study in France; he graduated from the Collège des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
He worked in Paris, as an artistic consultant, at Publicis (1956-1960), at Dupuy Media (1960-1963), then became artistic director at Havas (1963-1969). In the early 70s, he was artistic advisor for Havas design, for magazines (Marie Claire, Moto Revue) and founded Kastuan (architecture and design).
In 1970, his first solo exhibition was organized at the Maison de la culture in Amiens. Frequent personal exhibitions followed in the 70s (Lausanne, Paris, Grenoble, Bourges, Angers, Brussels, Brescia, Cagliari and Rome in Italy, etc.). Similarly, Tuan participated in many Salons and collective exhibitions (Musée national moderne de Paris, Grands et Jeunes d'Aujourd'hui, Comparaisons, Réalités Nouvelles, etc.). It was he who created the logo for Réalités Nouvelles. Tuan's creativity was expressed in different areas; he created a model of a car for Renault, the card game he had imagined won the first Grimaud prize in 1974 (organized byy the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris), as well as, much later and after a competition, his logo for the city of Hanoi. Tuan also collaborated in the world of theater, ballet and dance, creating sets, costumes and scenographies. Similarly, he will lead a teaching activity for many years (Ecole Camondo in Paris, Ecole nationale des beaux-arts de Cergy, director and professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Maryse Eloy in Paris from 1981 to 2003).Abstract, Tuan's pictorial world is made of "signs", "symbol" images that have matured for a long time in his mind. In the 70s, his paintings will focus mainly on rhythm and light. Following his instinct and his personality, the artist will find in his series of "sign" images the language that suits what is deepest in him. From the beginning, Tuan's "symbols", very sensitive to the organic forms and structures of species, will attract attention because of their dense, majestic, powerful and lively nature. Calligraphy will also be a source of inspiration, the artist making the correlation between the full and hollow parts, as in a true physical balance.These creative paths will allow him to discover the beauty of different shapes and symbols, through very static images and rigorous symmetries. We can say, from then on, that Tuan will live completely in the world of signs.Pham Ngoc Tuan passed away in 2022; he rests in the Ivry cemetery.