Nouveau réalisme
| Company type | Art movement |
|---|---|
| Industry | Visual arts |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | Pierre Restany, Yves Klein |
| Defunct | 1970 |
| Headquarters | Nice , France |
Area served | France, Italy, international |
Nouveau réalisme (translated as "new realism" from French) represents an art movement established in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany alongside painter Yves Klein during their inaugural group exhibition at the Apollinaire gallery in Milan. In April 1960, Restany composed the manifesto entitled "Constitutive Declaration of New Realism," declaring, "Nouveau Réalisme—new ways of perceiving the real." On 27 October 1960, this statement was endorsed by nine artists within Yves Klein's studio: Yves Klein, Arman, Martial Raysse, Pierre Restany, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, together with the Ultra-Lettrists Francois Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, and Jacques de la Villeglé. The following year, artists such as César, Mimmo Rotella, followed by Niki de Saint Phalle and Gérard Deschamps became part of the collective. Additionally, Christo exhibited with the group. The movement came to an end in 1970.
Emerging concurrently with American pop art and frequently regarded as its French equivalent, nouveau réalisme was one among several groundbreaking artistic trends of the 1960s, including movements like Fluxus. Initially centered in Nice on the French Riviera—the home base of Klein and Arman—the group has since been associated retrospectively with the École de Nice.
1940s and 1950s
The phrase “new realism” was first introduced by painter Jean Milhau in the magazine Arts de France, linked to the French Communist Party, where he characterized it in 1948 as a movement promoting a return to objective reality and socially relevant themes while embracing contemporary culture and technological advancements. The movement was inaugurated by André Fougeron with his work Les Parisiennes au Marché, displayed at the Salon d'Automne in 1948. Early advocates included painters such as Boris Taslitzky, Jean Milhau, Jean Vénitien, and Mireille Miailhe. In Italy, Renato Guttuso was recognized as a forerunner of Italian new realism through pieces like The Occupation of Waste Land in Sicily (1949), alongside Gabriele Mucchi’s La Terre. Nevertheless, by the mid-1950s, this version of new realism lost favor within the PCF, leading many affiliated artists to modify their artistic approaches.
1960s
In May 1960, Pierre Restany revived the term new realism to describe artworks by Omiros, Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, and Jacques Villeglé exhibited in Milan. Yves Klein—who passed away in 1962—preferred referring to it as "today's realism" (réalisme d'aujourd'hui) and expressed criticism toward the label "New." Following the initial "Manifesto of New Realism," a second declaration titled "40° above Dada" (40° au-dessus de Dada) was drafted between May and June 1961. The movement expanded to include César, Mimmo Rotella, Niki de Saint-Phalle—famous for her "shooting paintings"—Omiros with his concept of "free space," and Gérard Deschamps; Christo joined in 1963. Around 1961, Klein distanced himself from the group due to his disapproval of Restany’s focus on a Dadaist lineage.
The première exhibition featuring nouveaux réalistes took place in November 1960 during Paris's "Festival d'avant-garde," followed by displays at Gallery J. in Paris (May 1961); the Premier Festival du Nouveau Réalisme in Nice (July–September 1961); the International Exhibition of the New Realists at New York’s Sidney Janis Gallery (late 1962); and finally at the Biennale of San Marino in 1963—the last collective presentation. After Klein’s death in 1962 and Omiros’s decision to pursue exploration of perspective and space independently, the movement faced challenges sustaining its unity.
Ideas and methods
The nouveaux réalistes perceived the world as a source of imagery to extract elements from and incorporate into their creations, striving to blend existence with artistic expression. They coalesced around a shared recognition of their "collective singularity," celebrating varied individual styles while adhering to a unified approach: the straightforward appropriation of reality. Restany characterized this as a "poetic recycling of urban, industrial, and advertising reality." Rejecting conventional art criteria that demanded inherent meaning, they showcased objects in their own right yet still regarded them as art. Numerous artists produced works in public spaces to confront the idea of art as a private endeavor.
Promoting a shift back to "reality" in opposition to the lyricism prevalent in abstract painting, they distanced themselves from figurative art, which they associated with petty-bourgeois values or Stalinist socialist realism. They innovated the décollage technique—essentially the reverse of collage—utilizing torn posters, an approach perfected by François Dufrene, Jacques Villeglé, Mimmo Rotella, and Raymond Hains. Their collaborations frequently featured anonymous displays throughout Paris.
Nouveau réalistes made extensive use of collage and assemblage, integrating actual objects while acknowledging Marcel Duchamp’s readymades as precedents. Although often likened to New York pop art because of their engagement with and critique of mass-produced commercial items (such as Villeglé’s shredded movie posters and Arman’s accumulations of debris), Nouveau Réalisme maintained a stronger connection to Dada than to pop art.
The new realists in architecture
The term "new realists" also identifies a collective of Australian architects seeking to define a "New Realism" within architecture by combining historical perspectives with contemporary design principles and construction technologies.
Bibliography
- Jürgen Becker, Wolf Vostell, Happenings, Fluxus, Pop Art, Nouveau Réalisme. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1965.
- Catherine Francblin, Les Nouveaux Réalistes, éditions du Regard, Paris, 1997.
- Nouveau Réalisme. Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2005.
- Ulrich Krempel, Nouveau Réalisme. Revolution des Alltäglichen. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2007.
- Jill Carrick, Nouveau Réalisme, 1960s France, and the Neo-avant-garde: Topographies of Chance and Return, Ashgate Press, 2010.
- New Realisms, 1957–1962: Object Strategies Between Readymade and Spectacle, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2010.
- Pierre Restany, Manifeste des Nouveaux Réalistes, Editions Dilecta, Paris, 2007.
- Poesie der Großstadt. Die Affichisten. Bernard Blistène et al., Snoeck, Köln 2014.
External links
- "New Realism", article from the Centre Pompidou
- New Realism website, listing each of the artists