Arman
Cesar
Christo
Gerard Deschamps
Francois Dufrene
Raymond Hains
Yves Klein
Niki de Saint Phalle
Martial Raysse
Mimmo Rotella
Daniel Spoerri
Jean Tinguely
Jacques Villegle'
The group exhibition brings together work by all 13 members of the movement, including a selection of works by Arman, Cesar, Christo, Gerard Deschamps, Francois Dufrene, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Niki de Saint Phalle, Martial Raysse, Mimmo Rotella, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques Villegle'.
Luxembourg & Dayan are delighted to present Nouveau
Réalisme, their third exhibition in their London Savile Row
gallery which will open to the public on 19 June 2012.
Following on from the recent Dada Salon exhibition devoted
to the work of Jean Hans Arp, Nouveau Réalisme at
Luxembourg & Dayan will bring together work by all 13
members of the Nouveau Réaliste movement, including a
selection of works by Arman (1928 – 2005), César (b. 1921
- 1998) Christo (b. 1935), Gérard Deschamps (b. 1937),
François Dufrêne (1930 – 1982), Raymond Hains (1926 –
2005), Yves Klein (1928 - 1962), Niki de Saint Phalle (1930 -
2002), Martial Raysse (b. 1936), Mimmo Rotella (1918 –
2006), Daniel Spoerri (b. 1930), Jean Tinguely (1925 - 1991)
and Jacques Villeglé (b. 1926).
Nouveau Réalisme was officially established in May 1960
with the publication of a manifesto by critic Pierre Restany
in the catalogue of an exhibition at the Galerie Apollinaire in
Milan. Restany and eight of the artists, who were to become core members of the group, signed a joint
declaration on 27 October 1960.
The declaration announced the group’s shared vision
and their ambition to explore ‘new perceptual
approaches to reality’ in such a way that they were
able to maintain a diverse range of artistic
approaches. The new exhibition at Luxembourg &
Dayan in London celebrates this diversity and aims to
provide a cross section of the movement, looking at
the breadth of work produced by all of the artists
involved in the group.
Like the Dadaists and Surrealists, the Nouveau
Réaliste artists took an explicitly contemporary and
urban view of everyday life, seizing upon ‘reality’
through the use of undisguised artifacts created by
others.
Their works ranged from torn and lacerated posters, wrapped objects and accumulations of found objects
to assemblages of raw and junk materials and urban detritus including car parts, fabrics, rope and dishes.
Examples of the Nouveau Realists’ examination of the artistic possibilities
of everyday objects can be seen in Arman’s Colére (1964) which depicts a
smashed coffee mill on a wooden panel. Arman’s response to celebrity
culture, and the society that it produced at the time, is demonstrated in
Homage to Elizabeth Taylor (1965), an accumulation of prisms using
photographs of the actress Elizabeth Taylor which make up part of a
sculptural construction. Arman’s work later became a strong influence on
the international Pop Art movement, the artist himself moving to New
York in 1967.
Martial Raysse’s work Pamela Beach (1963) is
another important early Nouveau Réaliste
work on display in the exhibition. Regarded as
the young French artist who came closest to
American Pop Art, the theme of the female bather appeared in Martial
Raysse's work since 1960. In Pamela Beach, Raysse combined oil, collage and
photography on canvas along with the use of real objects to breathe life into
the subject.
The use of new or used objects by the Nouveau Réaliste sculptors, often in
excess or repetition, brought a new way of looking at the notion of the ready-
made, an artistic concept introduced by Marcel Duchamp nearly half a century earlier. The influence of
the ready-mades on the Nouveau Réaliste movement is demonstrated in the exhibition through works
including Gerard Deschamp’s reliefs where real life objects such as underwear and other fabric have been
mounted onto the canvas.
Further highlights of the exhibition include a work by Mimmo Rotella
from 1960, 8 Sopra, a décollage canvas which demonstrates the artist’s
pioneering use of lacerated posters, a technique also developed by other
members of the movement such as Jacques Villeglé, François Dufrêne and
Raymond Hains.
The exhibition aims to demonstrate the diversity of the movement and
will reveal the huge scope of work captured under the Nouveau Réaliste
title. As Arman is quoted as saying, “New Realism gathered together artists
who first perceived, problems posed by the relationship with the object, the
object that is produced, mechanical, rejected, mass produced, posters. They
tried to understand the civilization in the material it has, the problem of
flooding slogans, advertising, machine supermarkets, the urban world and
the object factory” (NB this is a translation of Arman’s quote from French to
English; the original quote in French is included below).
About Luxembourg & Dayan
Launched in 2009, Luxembourg & Dayan presents curated, museum quality exhibitions of works by modern and
contemporary artists. The gallery maintains two spaces, one filling a townhouse at 64 East 77th Street in New York
City, and another at 2 Savile Row in London.
Recent critically acclaimed exhibitions have included historical surveys of works by Marcel Duchamp and Alberto
Burri; the exhibition “Jeff Koons: Made in Heaven Paintings;” and two important thematic shows “Unpainted
Paintings” and “Grisaille.” From February 2012 to April 2012 the gallery presented “Arp is Art,” at 2 Savile Row, the
first London exhibition to focus exclusively on the artist since his death in 1966.
DOMENICO GNOLI: PAINTINGS 1964-1969 is currently on show at Luxembourg & Dayan in New York until 30 June
2012
Luxembourg & Dayan London is open Tuesday through Friday, from 11AM to 4PM and Saturdays 12 to 4PM
A list of quotes by Pierre Restany in “Les Nouveaux Réalistes” editions Planète 1968, is available on request
Arman’s quote on Nouveau Réalisme: “Le Nouveau Réalisme à rassemblé des artistes qui ont perçu avant les
autres les problèmes posés par les rapports avec l’objet, l’objet produit, mécanique, rejeté, la production de
masse, les affiches. Ils ont essayé de comprendre la civilization dans ce qu’elle a de matériel, le probleme de
l’envahissement des slogans, de la publicité, de la machine, des supermarchés, le monde urbain et l’objet
manufacture.”
Image: ARMAN (1928-2005), Homage to Elizabeth Taylor. Accumulation of prisms with photographs of Elizabeth Taylor embedded in plexiglas cube, 20 7/8 x 20 x 20 in. (53 x 51 x 51 cm). Executed in 1965
For further press information and to request images please contact:
Anna Jones at Sutton PR: anna@suttonpr.com/+44 (0) 207 183 3577
Press view: 18 June 2012, 09.30 – 12.00
Luxembourg & Dayan
2 Savile Row - London
Tuesday through Friday, from 11AM to 4PM and Saturdays 12 to 4PM