New Realism is actually rather old, at least among younger generations who tend to regard the so-called swinging sixties as a time closer to Joan of Arc than Ségolène Royal.
The sixties across the Channel were just as creative, making a significant if accidental contribution in France to the history of art out of the debris and detritus of everyday living. Empty barrels, abandoned cars, crushed cans, piles of plastic, bent fences and misappropriated street signs were all the tools of a new artistic movement in the booming, slightly vulgar consumer society.
Armand Arman Daniel Spoerri
Armand Arman, the renowned French painter and sculptor from Nice, was one of those who signed the Declaration of New Realism on 27 October 1960. At the press conference, however, bullied by his American wife Corice Canton, he had an ‘Andy Warhol moment’ and confessed that he expected the new movement to last all of 20 minutes. Art critic Pierre Restany, the polemic force behind New Realism, was furious until Arman rescued this and other launch occasions by showing off his new idea. His Accumulations, no more really than a job lot of bric-a-brac, such as coffee pots and mugs, caught the imagination of the press, who especially liked Corice’s brilliant collection of African carvings. Corice of course promptly changed her mind about New Realism and had the group adopted by wealthy art enthusiasts in the United States; their creations also went on display with less success in Germany and Italy. The Germans were largely baffled and the Italians took home “samples”, despite tight security.
César Martial Raysse
On display had been a whole group of idiosyncratic ideas to go with Arman’s Accumulations, such as Compressions by César, slashed posters by Hains and Villeglé, Assemblages by Raysse of worthless bits of plastic, Trap-Pictures by Spoerri and Tinguely’s inspired idea, sculptures that self-destruct – although as Restany wryly observed, they never lasted long enough to form part of any permanent exhibition.
Raymond Hains Villeglé
The Pompidou Centre has succeeded in bringing together 200 examples of this eccentric art for the first time in over 20 years. The pioneers would be amazed and highly flattered to see that what Arman publicly and most of the others, privately, thought would be a nine-day wonder, is now discussed in art books as a pivotal moment in history.
www.centrepompidou.fr
