ALFRED LATOUR – REGARD SUR LA FORME
Running from 27 April to 6 October 2024, the exhibition, organised in partnership with the Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon, the Musée Réattu in Arles and the Alfred Latour Foundation in Lausanne, was born of the desire to bring together Alfred Latour’s photographic work and his work as a designer of motifs for the textile industry.
Raphaël Starobinski, © Fondation Alfred Latour, Lausanne
If the dialogue between the textiles and photographs of Alfred Latour (Paris, 1888 – Eygalières, 1964) seems so obvious today, so visible are the aesthetic and formal links, it is the result of a new look at the work of this multi-faceted artist. During his lifetime, Alfred Latour, a member of the Union des artistes modernes, was first and foremost known and recognised for his engraving, illustrated books, painting and drawing, as well as for his textile creations for some of Lyon’s leading fashion houses. Although he does not claim photography as an artistic activity, it plays an essential role in his creative process. Through his eye, he produced a veritable body of photographic work, which was rediscovered in 2016 and exhibited for the first time at the Musée Réattu in 2018. We need to understand these photos through the eye of the painter, who finds in this technique a way of looking at the world, of capturing forms that will feed into his work as a draughtsman, painter or textile artist. Part of the Rencontre d’Arles Associated Programme, the exhibition presents research carried out between 1928 and 1964, revealing a subtle interweaving of the artist’s means of expression. How the motif of a print designed for fashion or furnishings finds its source in the photographer’s eye. How certain photographs inspire a pencil drawing and give birth to simple and complex forms in the repetition imposed by printing motifs on fabric. All these gestures originate in a perfect mastery of engraving, two-colour printing, the space of the plate and the repetition of the motif. To reveal the graphic genius of this protean artist, the exhibition is structured around four themes, bringing together photographs and textile works: VEGETATION and NATURE – LINES and TRACES – BLACK & WHITE and COLOUR – GEOMETRY and ABSTRACTION. From this perspective of the intrinsic links between the different means of expression (drawing, engraving, painting, photography, textile and fabric models), ‘Regard sur la forme’ offers a new insight into the creative process and resolutely modern artistic language of this major 20th-century artist.
COMMISSARIAT
Aziza Gril-Mariotte, Director General of the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs de Lyon, Professor of Art History at Aix-Marseille University and researcher at the UMR TELEMMe
Daniel Rouvier, Head Curator of Heritage, Director of the Musée Réattu
SCIENTIFIC COORDINATOR
Marion Falaise, Head of the Scientific and Collections Department, Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs de Lyon
SCENOGRAPHY
Pierre Starobinski, Director and Head of Programmes, Alfred Latour Foundation
RENDEZ-VOUS
Friday 17 May at 6pm
Meet Daniel Rouvier, director of the Musée Réattu and curator of the exhibition.
Free, by reservation before 16 May on 0033 4 90 49 37 58 or reattu.reservation@ville-arles.fr
Friday 24 May at 6pm
Aziza Gril-Mariotte, Director General of the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs de Lyon and Daniel Rouvier, Director of the Musée Réattu, curators of the exhibition.
Free, by reservation before 23 May on 0033 4 90 49 37 58 or reattu.reservation@ville-arles.fr
From 27 April to 06 October 2024- Exposition inscrite au Programme Associé des Rencontres d’Arles
Musée Réattu – 10, rue du Grand Prieuré 13200 Arles Booking: 00 33 4 90 49 37 58 Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm – Closed on Mondays and 1 May
Tickets : Full – €8/ Reduced – €6 – Arles residents: free (free admission and reductions on presentation of proof)
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE: ALFRED LATOUR REGARD SUR LA FORME
Hardback / 130 colour illustrations / 168 pages / 22 x 28 cm
Co-published by the Fondation Alfred Latour and the musée Réattu/ Édition Actes Sud
Public price: €29, on sale at the Musée Réattu shop
ISBN : 978-2-330-18938-9
Partner of the exhibition, has produced a series of wallpapers modelled on fabric pattern studies by Alfred Latour.
More information: Collection
