The painter, media and object artist Bernard Aubertin is regarded one of the most important representatives of the artist group "Zéro".
Bernard Aubertin was born in the French town of Fontenay-aux-Roses in 1934. After the end of the war he began to study at the Paris Ecole des Metiers d'Art and the Ecole de Formation des Professeurs de Dessin (1950-1953).
Bernard Aubertin's early paintings continued avant-garde art from the days before the war: He predominantly made landscapes, portraits and still lives in a Cubist/Futurist style. In 1957 the artistic development of Bernard Aubertin's saw its breakthrough: The young painter met Yves Klein, whose oeuvre would have fundamental influence on him. From that point on Bernard Aubertin turned away from figuration and instead sought to display effects of pure color, light, motion and abstract structures. A primal and mystical power dominated the artist's new works.
As of 1958 Bernard Aubertin became increasingly occupied with the effects of monochrome paintings with either lively-pastose or thoroughly smoothed surfaces. These works are dominated by a strong shade of red, as of the late 1980s he made black pictures. As of 1960 Bernard Aubertin began to create his nail pictures which would become a leitmotif within his oeuvre.
Soon the artist discovered fire as a means of artistic expression. In 1961 Bernard Aubertin used the element, which to him was the source of all life, in kinetic objects. Later he made work groups of scorched books ("Livres Brûlés", as of 1962) or the red smoking metal "Cages rouges de Fumée". Scorch marks, matches or firework rockets can be found in his works from the 1960s.
Works by Bernard Aubertin have been part of international exhibitions since the 1960s, among them shows in Paris (1972), Florence (1974), Caracas (1989) or Milan (1990). Bernard Aubertin lives and works in Paris.