Tran Tho (1922 - 2003)
Tran Tho was a Vietnamese painter based in Hanoi, known from the 1950s for his paintings on silk. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine in Hanoi and later at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he remained until 1947. He received honorable mentions at the Venice Biennale in 1954 and 1956, and won prizes at art salons in the United States, Italy, Switzerland and France. He took part in eleven editions of the São Paulo Biennial and held solo exhibitions in Japan, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Monaco, the United States and France.
His work represents a synthesis of Eastern and Western techniques, combining tradition and modernity in form and content. With great discipline, he developed a free art, marked by intimate visions and messages conveyed through an expressive chromatic language. His personal style is manifested in decisive brushstrokes, lines and stains that compose intricate textures — ranging from somber tones of grays and blacks to vibrant colors. They are abstractions wrapped in a veil of mystery.
From 1965, Tran Tho divided his working time between New York, Rome and São Paulo. His international recognition was consolidated through prizes at major art salons and biennials around the world. Meiri Levin highlighted his refined sensitivity, expressed through subtle drawing and a delicate use of color. Sérgio Milliet observed that, although his technique has an exotic character, his art reveals itself in an immediate and suggestive way, bringing his themes, motifs and elements to life on the pictorial plane.
Chronology
Born in Saigon in 1922, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and lived in Paris from 1947. In Paris, he is regarded as a great artist from Vietnam, a country he successfully represented at the Biennale di Venezia in 1954 and 1956. We must also draw attention to his participation in the São Paulo Biennial from 1955 to 1965. From 1965, he lived and worked in New York, São Paulo and Rome.
Solo Exhibitions
1981 Mishkenot Sha'ananim, Jerusalem, Israel; Galeria Documenta, São Paulo, Brazil.
1979 Galeria Documenta, São Paulo, Brazil; Pleiades Gallery, New York, United States.
1978 Galeria Documenta, São Paulo, Brazil.
1976 Iate Clube, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pleiades Gallery, New York, United States.
1975 Chelsea Galerias, São Paulo, Brazil.
1974 Inter Center, New York, United States; Pleiades Gallery, New York, United States.
1972 The Cubiculo, New York, United States; The New York Shakespeare Theater, New York, United States.
1970 New School for Social Research, New York, United States; Graduate Center Mall, New York, United States.
1969 Chelsea Galerias, São Paulo, Brazil.
1967 Chelsea Galerias, São Paulo, Brazil.
1965 Chelsea Galerias, São Paulo, Brazil.
1963 Galeria Bonino, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1954 Palazzo Ca' Giustinian, Venice, Italy.
1953 Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland.
Awards
1970 Graduate Center Mall of CUNY, solo exhibition, New York, United States.
1967 São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1965 São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1963 São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1961 São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1959 Premio Garzanti, artistic contribution to Vatican City, Rome, Italy; São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1957 São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1956 Venice Biennale, honorable mention, Italy.
1955 São Paulo Biennial, honorable mention, Brazil.
1954 1st prize from the President of Italy, Luigi Einaudi, for the work at the Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, Italy; Venice Biennale, honorable mention, Italy.
Source: Artcanal, UOL.
