PARIS - 2008-06-10

INTERVIEWING ARTIST PHAM TANG IN PARIS-
by Jonathan McCurley

( Jonathan is a young Canadian artist, playwright, actor and movie producer. He traveled to Paris to interview his great uncle, 88 years old artist Pham Tang, in June 2008, while in search for the meaning of art. Below is the interview in brief.
Jonathan lives in Montreal and is busy making a Hollywood movie for children)

Q 1- HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PAINTING? HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN A PAINTER/ WHY DID YOU CHOOSE PAINTING RATHER THAN OTHER MEDIA TO EXPRESS YOUR ART?

PT- I started in Viet nam during the revolution and struggle against the French colonialization of Viet nam during the 1940s ( 1946-1948)
We artists did not fight the with guns but I believe more effectively with our newsletters, with propagada and satire cartoons.

I choose painting as my medium because it's an art that I can do it myself, on my own. Other art media such as film or theatre you would need to involve many others to create the work and to make it. People who work on the show, the people who market it, sell tickets, making sure everything is in placed...Sculpture was also a great love of mine but I decided against it as I am not strongly built, and I can't lift very heavy materials required to work on sculpture.

Q 2- WHAT DO YOU DRAW FROM TO DO YOUR ART? Do you consider yourself a philosopher?

PT- Each artist must have a core knowledge to draw from, be it religion, social or humanity, from which they draw for their work. The core knowledge is not from education alone. Education is a small part of the process.
The WEST has tradionally surpassed the EAST in sciences and technology, but it has not come close to the East in culture, traditions and philosophy. I tend to be authentical, original and my art comes from Eastern beliefs. Eatern philosophy offer me the the source of support and consolation.
The references for your reading on Eastern culture books are:
- Alan Watts ( American philosopher on Eastern philosophy)
- Lee Yew Tang: A professor in New York.
- Dao Duc Kinh : Lao Tzu/ Zen Buddhism.

To see my paintings, the viewer would imagine himself to be a butterfly in a garden.
You go inside the painting, and get lost in it.
Like a deep sea diver who goes deep in the ocean to view and admire the corals, forgetting about the ocean or the surrounding.
You go inside my painting and look at its beauty and its many details , try not to think about what it is or who painted it.

Q3- WHAT WAS YOUR TRAINING IN ART. WHAT STYLE OR SCHOOL OF ART DO YOU FOLLOW?

I had a classic art training in Ha Noi and in Rome where I was exposed to classic sculpture and drawings of the Greek or Renaissance. However Vietnam unwittingly was under heavy influence of Chinese culture over thousands of years, and then French culture for another hundred of years, so I wanted to LIBERATE myself from all these influences and from what I was trained.
I developed this technique that is deemed UNIQUE! Not ever before taught by the French nor the Chinese in art. That is my own style and is truly unique.
I want to offer some helpful hints to Hannah in her drawing of portrait and the female form.
Look at the MONA LISA, the whole world come to the Louvres and of all the famous work of art of many centuries, they just want to see the Mona Lisa!
The mystery of the Mona Lisa:
Artists who took Anatomy to draw human body for the arts and sculpture would know this:
There are 49 muscles on the face. These facial muscles are all interrelated.
When you smile, not just the lips are curved upward but the nose wrinkles, the eyebrows lift and the eyes wrinkled at the corners. All these tiny muscles work at the same time to give us our expressions, and they all happened at the same time. But not in the Mona Lisa!

A German reporter/ and art critic in the 18th century came to the Louvres to see the Mona Lisa, and made the observation/comment that:
In the Mona Lisa, there is a contradiction: only the lips are smiling but NOT her eyes NOR her face! Here lies the contradiction, the beauty and the mystery ....of the Mona Lisa.

Q4- In the 1960-1970s EASTERN influence became popular in the WEST. What do you think of it?

After the twoWorld Wars in the West there was a severe depression period in the art. Millions were killed, the future was bleak, people demanded change! so Existentialism was the norm of the day or they found refuge in Eastern philosophy.

Q5- Among the many artists you have met in your life's time who had made it and who had not? What makes a difference in their outcome?

( Pham Tang brought his hands to his head, in deep thought, followed by a big sigh)

To be an artist you are like the tight rope- walker performing at the circus! You must learn how to vire to the left, how to vire to the right. Keeping a balance to hang in there. The ones who did not make it, we all know what happened to them.

Q6- What do you think of the bienal big Expos that are happening all over the world? The big names artists go to these events as a sign that they have made it?

That has nothing to do with Art! It's a big marketing thing. An artist looks into his own for his art. There is a vietnamese saying - « O nha o? truo^ng!!!`, Ra duo`ng mac ao!!!!' » to say that people are their naked self at home and then pretend to be something else when showed to others. You must stay true to yourself !

Q7- What's next for Pham Tang?

I will continue to search until the last day of my life : « What is the purpose of my life? »
I will continue to ask question. That will never stop.
I have an ambitious project for the art , something that has never been done before by any one, in any country. I would like to do it in Viet Nam, for Viet Nam, and to leave a legacy for Viet Nam.
( Pham Tang is an energetic 88 years old artist, poet and philosopher who never ceases to think, to love and to laugh. He write his poems daily and lives among a very vibrant artist community in Paris)


Q8- To the people who mean most to you - who are important to you, did you ever became successful?

You must continue asking the question, continue having the big question mark in your head. Anyone thinks he has found himself, that is the end!!!
Big laugh!! then cited one of his brilliant vietnamese poem:
« Di dau du` de^'n day' troi`
Cung khong vuot noi^? ra ngoai` la`n da.
Khong di thi o? lai nha`
Go'c giuo`ng, nu?a chie'u thu.c la` me^nh mong^. »
Losely translated in English :

« How far is the new horizon that one must reach
To shed the confines of his skin ?
« How immense is the corner of one’s bed ?
(in which to curl up),
To contain the universe of his thought ! »

END OF INTERVIEW