Gérard Coste


Gérard Coste, is a French painter and diplomat, who was born in Marseille.

Biography

Gérard was born in France in 1939. His parents owned a pharmacy, which was destroyed during the bombing in 1942 in Apt.
From 1943 to 1944 he attended Apt School of Sisters, before they moved to Provence, where his parent bought another pharmacy. He started studying at Saint Denis School there till 1949. Then he attended St. Joseph College in Avignon from 1949 till 1956.
He was a graduate of the Sciences Po, HEC Paris and the École nationale d'administration . After finishing universities he began his diplomatic career in Laos in 1964, later serving in Japan.
Being in Japan, he spent two years studying painting with the master Toshimitsu Imai, being Imai's only Western student. Coste had his first one-man exhibition in 1975 in Japan. He has had several shows in France and Japan and exhibiting his works regularly in Japan, the United States, Singapore and Thailand. He is the nephew-in-law of the late Czech painter Otakar Kubín whom lived nearby, close to Marseille.
From 1978 till 1983 he was a cultural advisor to Japan, and made several exhibitions in Tokyo and in the provinces.
Later he became a Director of French cultural centers and institutes abroad at the Ministry of the EI.
From 1993 till 1995 he served as an ambassador to Singapore, where he also made several exhibitions.
Later he became an ambassador to Bangkok, where he made a publication "Darkness and light".
He pursued both careers, diplomatic and artistic together. He says : "I always had an urge to flee my own culture and a prearranged destiny". He retired in 2003, the date on which he set up his painting studio in Bangkok.

Personal life

Coste married Naomi in 1974.

Main Assignments

"Ailleurs",2012.
"Crypte", 2013.
"Avatar",2014.