- Lot 227

THE MANIFESTO OF THE NEW REALISTS , 1960 Text written in chalk on paper painted in IKB blue Marouflé on canvas " On Thursday, October 27, 1960, the New Realists became aware of their collective singularity. New Realism = new perceptive approaches to reality. " Signed: Yves le monochrome [Yves Klein], Martial Raysse, Spoerri Feinstein [Daniel Spoerri], Restany, Arman, Tinguely, Hains, F. Dufrêne, Villeglé 98,5 x 65 cm Provenance - copy attributed by lottery to Jacques Villeglé on 27 October 1960 - former collection of Jacques Mahé de La Villeglé - Mathias Fels Gallery, Paris - Beaubourg Gallery, Vence - acquired by the present owner from the latter in 1996 Exhibitions - The New Realists: works 1955-1965 Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice, from July 9 to September 26, 1982 (our copy reproduced on the exhibition poster) - Work exhibited in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMAC) in Nice for twenty-five years by deposit agreement Bibliography - Pierre Restany, 60/90 : Thirty years of New Realism , collection Mobile Matière, Édition de La Différence, 1990, repr. on cover - Nice Movements: Contemporary French Art Hong Kong Museum of Art, April 20 to June 25, 2000, repr. p. 41 - Tinguely 's favorite: Yves Klein Museum Jean Tinguely, Basel, exhibition catalog, 1 st December 1999 to April 9, 2000, repr. p. 155 - Beaux-Arts hors-série Yves Klein, corps, couleur, immatériel", 2006, repr. p.20 - 50 Jahre Nouveaux Réalistes, Cologne, Galerie Reckermann, April 21 to July 31, 2010, repr. on cover. cover Estimate on request The very first manifesto of the New Realists In 1960, the French art critic Pierre Restany gathered a group of artists in their thirties and forties, who he was convinced constituted an artistic movement around the transformation of everyday objects into works of art: Yves Klein who coats with blue, pink or gold various supports; Arman who accumulates the objects; César who compresses them; Rotella who removes the posters of cinema to make paintings of it; Raysse who presents installations with products of supermarket; Spoerri who freezes the remains of meal in paintings-traps; Tinguely, who creates useless machines from scrap metal; Hains, who recovers zinc sheets glued to torn posters in the street; Dufrêne, who literally turns posters upside down with glue; Villeglé, who collects political street posters. Restany called this group of French, Swiss and Italian artists the "New Realists" because they had a new approach to reality, that is to say, to the relationship to the object. On April 16, 1960, Pierre Restany wrote the manifesto of the New Realists in an eight-page booklet for the inaugural exhibition held at the Galerie Apollinaire in Milan. During a meeting of the group at Yves Klein's home, 14 rue Campagne-Première in Paris, on October 27, 1960, it was decided to immortalize the founding text - reduced to its essence - in the form of a mini manifesto co-signed by all the members and which would be given to each one. César and Mim- mo Rotella were not present, so that day there were only eight co-signing artists (plus Restany). It was Yves Klein who wrote the copies on monochrome paper in his own handwriting: seven on blue paper, one on pink paper and one on gold paper. The copies were then raffled off and given to each person. The creation of this poster-manifesto is a collective gesture that follows the tradition of artists' manifestos such as Dada (1916), Surrealism (1924) and Concrete Art (1930). Later, between 1961 and 1963, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Christo and Gérard Deschamps joined the artistic movement. Historical and artistic context These artists with different creative backgrounds joined forces at the beginning of the 20th century.