During his lifetime, Alfred Latour (Paris, 1888 – Eygalières, 1964), member of the Union of Modern Artists, was first known and recognized for his art of engraving, illustrated books, painting and drawing, as well as for his textile creations for major Lyon houses. As for his practice of photography, although he does not claim it as an artistic activity, it nevertheless plays an essential role in his creative process, and through his gaze, he produced a true photographic work, which was rediscovered in 2016 and exhibited for the first time at the Réattu museum in 2018.
The Regard sur la forme exhibition, organized by the Réattu museum in partnership with the Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon and the Alfred Latour Foundation in Lausanne, was born from the desire to create a dialogue between the photographic work of Alfred Latour and his activity as a designer of patterns for the textile industry.
The tour presents the research carried out between 1928 and 1964, in which we discover a subtle overlap between the mediums: the motif of a print designed for fashion finds its source in a photographic image, the photographed still lifes inspire pencil drawings and give rise to the complex and repetitive structures required by printing on fabric. All these gestures find their origin in a perfect mastery of engraving, duotones, the space of the plate, the repetition of the motif.
Four themes were chosen to compare the photographs and textile works – nature and plants, lines and traces, black & white and color, geometry and abstraction – and reveal the graphic genius of this protean artist .
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Cette exposition fait partie de la séquence "Arles associé" des Rencontres d'Arles
