The Myth of Nouveau Realisme

On October 27, 1960, art critic Pierre Restany named a group of Paris-based artists the "Nouveaux R alistes" (New Realists) in a founding declaration that stated, "The New Realists recognize their collective singularity. New Realism = new perceptual approaches of the real." Besides Restany, this group included Arman, Fran ois Dufr ne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and Jacques Villegl . Their work incorporated consumer objects and new media in response to the postwar period's painterly modes and its burgeoning consumer and industrial society. However, they did not share a common avant-garde strategy.



The Myth of Nouveau R alisme is a critical reassessment of this important neo-avant-garde movement. Kaira M. Caba as offers an interdisciplinary account of their work and challenges the ideas of Restany, who mandated a "direct appropriation of the real." Caba as posits that, for the Nouveaux R alistes, realism engaged performative practices to produce alternative social meanings.