Bernard Latuner was born in Mulhouse in 1942. He studied at the École des beaux-arts in Mulhouse where he specialised in etching and lithography under the guidance of Léon Lang, and developed a talent for documenting scenes of daily life. His trajectory was a common one for an artist at the time: work towards following the established career path of exhibitions, salons and solo shows.
After a two-year hiatus during which he trained as a parachutist as part of his military service, May 1968 marked a true personal and artistic turning point for Lautner as it was then that he reclaimed his ‘freedom of thought’. This freedom also manifested itself in travel, with the artist making journeys to Greece, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, the United States and Italy.
His artistic output at the time was inspired by the industrial, steering away from early abstraction to lean towards folkloric and popular forms of illustrations (with a particular appreciation for European comics) and depicting subjects such as factories and naval fields. He also ventured into the realm of film with a short animated feature for the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française and a video with Robert Cahen for the Parti sans laisser d’adresse exhibition.
In the 1980s, Latuner left Mulhouse to settle in the countryside, in Soppe-le-Haut, surrounded by chickens, geese and rabbits, as he felt a need to reconnect with the environment. For Latuner, the systemic destruction of the planet became a source of psychological anxiety that translated into his art. He borrows from bourgeois portraits of the 19th century to depict endangered species, the strong features of which ‘are saying something’. Another series addresses the question of ecocides, showing animals trapped in the horrors of human construction, and as the object of human-made destruction — ducks imprisoned by bulldozers, or a deer requiring helicopter evacuation.
His more recent museums of nature offer a reflection (in more than one sense) on and of the environment. Small mirrored boxes reflect their surroundings, while inside, they contain an infinite kaleidoscopic poppy field. A slightly more poetic proposal than his work on ecocides. Latuner is aware of his disillusioned approach, and describes himself as a ‘pessimistic fighter’ angered by so much natural disfiguration, who could only hope to be more poetic.
Over the course of his career, he has exhibited in Mulhouse (1966, 1975, 1984, 2012, 2018, 2020), Biarritz (1966), Fribourg (1966), Paris (1975, 1979, 1980, 1981), Pont-à-Mousson (1980), Bâle (1982), Lyon (1983), Brussels, Tel Aviv, Reims, Bourges and Amsterdam.
Latuner lives and works in Soppe-le-Haut.
