About the artist

Louis Latapie (Toulouse, 1891-1972), painter and engraver, studied in 1910 at l'École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he took lessons with Jean-Paul Laurens, but also went to the Academie Julian from 1911 and with Paul Serusier at the Académie Ranson, where he learns to discover Cubism. This was followed by military service and after that he served at the front throughout WWI. His older brother was killed, he himself was wounded three times and was decorated for this.

During the 1920s he was very active, just married, exhibiting a lot and having a number of solo exhibitions at the famous Galerie Druet. He also started teaching at the Académie Ranson. During this period he also met good friends Georges Braque, Jean Metzinger, Max Jacob and Jacques Villon and Roger Bissière. They also exhibited together, including in New York in 1923. He also exhibited at the 1924 Biennale.

With Braque, Ozenfant and Bissière, Latapie also founded "Castors de Montsouris", an association whose aim was to build houses in the shape of a cube.

In 1925, after a nasty divorce from his wife, he moved to Toulon and founded a painting academy there together with Juan Gris. In 1927 he returned to Paris where he married Renée Meurisse again, daughter Laure was born in 1931.
He will again teach at Académie Ranson and will also remain involved with the Academy in Toulon. His work continues to develop, although there are periods in his life when he hardly gets to paint due to financial problems (1932-36).

A major retrospective of his work was also held in 1936 at the Salon d'Automne. In 1941 he exhibited together with Desnoyer, Estève, Fautrier, Lorjou and Manessier.

He belonged to the group of the Parisian Avant Gardists, they experimented with style, form and color, and the dissection of the image into elements.
Latapie also looked for a way to integrate and harmonize the classical elements into an innovative style. He wanted to transform reality into poetry, as he called it. That was his great aspiration.

After his death, he was honored, like Braque and Picasso, with a major retrospective of his oeuvre at the Palais des Papes in Avignon in the early 1970s. Special exhibitions were also devoted to him in Toulouse, Paris, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Lille, Bordeaux, Geneva and Bilbao.

The work of Louis Latapie can be found in several large collections, including those of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris and Geneva and museums in Avignon, Toulouse and Poitiers.

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