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Hervé Tullet

French, born 1958

Image courtesy of the artist. © Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Hervé Tullet is an artist, performer, and author of children’s books born in Normandy, France, in 1958. After studying illustration and visual communication, he worked for about ten years in advertising.

In the early 1990s, he produced his first illustrations commercial illustrations. In 1994, his first children’s book, Comment papa a rencontré maman, was published by Le Seuil Jeunesse. Recognition was not long in coming: he received the Non-Fiction Prize at the Bologna International Book Fair in 1998 for Faut pas confondre, and his books, which favor following a path as opposed to a narrative, quickly made a name for themselves.

Press Here, published in 2010, synthesizes Tullet's art in its purest form, creating magic with just three dots: yellow, red, and blue. A critical and public success, Press Here has been translated into more than thirty languages. His follow-ups include Mix It Up!, Let’s Play!, and Say Zoop!

In addition to creating books, Tullet never ceases to experiment with his many workshops. Sometimes bringing together up to several hundred people, these unique and creative experiences have taken him to Korea, Turkey, London, and Italy, among other places.

Tullet has led numerous workshops in prestigious United States venues such as the Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He has also mounted exhibitions of his own work at the Invisible Dog Art Center in New York (This Isn’t Trash, 2017) and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh (Art Explosion, 2017). In 2018, a retrospective of his work since the 1990s took place in Seoul, South Korea, at the Hangaram Art Museum.