Plantu

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Jean Plantureux (Paris, March 23, 1951 - ), who goes by the professional name Plantu, is a French cartoonist specializing in political satire. His work has frequently appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde since 1972.

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[edit] Early life

Jean Plantureux got his Baccalaureate at Lycée Henri-IV in 1969. Afterwards he started to study Medicine but soon gave this up and went to Brussels, where he started courses in drawing at École Saint-Luc, where he was sponsored by Hergé.

[edit] Early professional career 1970 - 1986

Plantu returned to Paris and attempted to sell his cartoons to the French daily newspapers. He was hired by Bernard Lauzanne, from Le Monde, and his first cartoon, about the war in Vietnam, was published on the first of October 1972. In 1974, Claude Julien, then Director of Le Monde Diplomatique, started to also publish Plantu's drawings in his paper.

In 1980 Plantu begins working with Le Journal Phosphore, a relationship which continues until 1986. In 1982, André Laurens, and Claude Lamotte, respectively the director and editor in chief of Le Monde, ask him to start drawing a cartoon for the Sunday edition of Le Monde. In September of 1987 Plantu participated in the television show, Droit de Réponse, with Michel Polac on TF1.

In 1985, the head of Le Monde, André Fontaine, started to publish Plantu's cartoons daily saying that this would return political satire back to its former standing as a French tradition.

[edit] Professional life from 1985 - 1995

In 1988 Plantu received the Mumm prize for his cartoon "Gordji chez le juge", followed by le prix de l'humor noir in 1989. In 1991 Plantu starts to publish a comic in the weekly magazine L'Express, which allotted Plantu its entire third page every week for a comic.

In 1991 Plantu meets Yasser Arafat during a showing of his cartoons in Tunis. Yasser Arafat likes Plantu's cartoons so much that he even draws a Star of David on a Plantu cartoon, coloring it in and signing it. The following year in 1992 he traveled to Israel and met Shimon Peres, whom he convinces to sign the cartoon as well. This was the first time that signatures from both parties, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and the Israeli Government, had been affixed to the same document prior to the Oslo Accords.

[edit] 1995 through 2000

Le Monde changes their methodology in 1995 and Plantu loses control over the subject matter of his cartoons. In 1996 Plantu has a showing of his cartoons and sculptures at the Cour de cassation (French Supreme Court) in Paris. Later that year he receives the Spanish Gat Perich (International Caricature Prize). Some of his drawings and sculptures are auctioned at the Drouot Hotel in Paris, and he receives exposure in Argentina through the Alliance Française of Buenos Aires.

In 1997 Plantu has a gallery open in Khartoum, Sudan. In Budapest, the president of the Hungarian Republic, Árpád Göncz, inaugurates an exhibit of Plantu and Gabor Papai. A new gallery opens at the French Arts centre of Mexico City. A showing of his work is opened at CRAC of Valence.

In 1998 a stamp worth 3.00 Francs is published by the French Post Office, the proceeds are dedicated to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). There were 8.5 million stamps published. To celebrate the 50th anniverseray of the universal Declaration of human rights UNESCO publishes several foreign collections illustrated by Plantu. His drawings are translated into Chinese, Japanese, Ukrainien, and more. A gallery is opened in Haiti at the French Institute of Port-au-Prince

In 1999 a gallery is opened at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Some of his drawings are exhibted in Iran at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Teheran. An exhibit of his drawings and sculptures about justice is opened at the Hotel of Rohan, and another exhibit of his works is opened at the Museum Jean-Jaurès de Castres, and finally another installation at the French Arts centre of Singapore.

In September of 2000 a controversial argument starts around the distribution of a Plantu drawing showing Jacques Chirac copulating with a sleeping Marianne. An exhibit of Plantu and Daumier opens in the Museum of Antibes. Another installation is opened at the French Arts center in Yaounde, Cameroun.

[edit] 2001 through present

In Turkey, his art was featured in the Festival of the Caricature in Ankara in 2001. In 2002, he met with the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, to discuss an upcoming international conference of news cartoonists in Paris. A thesis was published by Rémi Pézerat entitled "La signification politique des dessins de Plantu (1972-2000)"(The political significance of the cartoons of Plantu (1972-2000)). Recently, Plantu celebrated the publishing of his 15,000th cartoon and 30 years with Le Monde, and created the official Plantu Site.

In 2003 an exhibit of his drawing was opened at the Carnavalet Museum. Towards the end of the year another exhibit was opened at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, and a street exhibit was hosted in Angers.

In 2004 his drawings were shown to the French National Assembly in February, and his 40th book, "Ils pourraient dire merci!" was was published.

On February 3, 2006 he responded to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy by publishing a drawing in the first page of Le Monde representing Muhammad using many copies of the sentence "I may not draw Muhammad".

[edit] External links

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