Career
He was sent on a mission to Laos, Vietnam, China (1964–1986). In 2000, he explained his work in a series of interviews with the critic Jean-Luc Moreau. In 1952, he participated in research conducted by Joel Picton.
From 1983 to 2001 he was professor of early Christian and Renaissance iconography at ICART (Paris).
Tristan is one of the authors named in Jean-Luc Moreau"s 1992 manifesto and anthology Louisiana Nouvelle Fiction, alongside Hubert Haddad, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, François Coupry, Jean Levy, Patrick Carré, and Marc Petit. All of his archives (manuscripts, books published and translated, audio and visual documentation, reviews) is available at Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre.