Jacques Villeglé ( Flammarion Contemporary )
François Bon and Nicolas Bourriaud
The first English-language publication on one of the most influential French artists of the New Realism movement of the 1960s. Found objects, ripped posters, radical collages: as part of the New Realism movement of the early 1960s, Jacques Villeglé’s work directly influenced his contemporaries, in particular New York Pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. In 1947,Villeglé began collecting scrap iron and other debris from the beach, later exhibiting his collection as sculptures. However, he soon began to concentrate on posters that he found in the streets, ripped by anonymous passers-by or simply by the passage of time. By using everyday objects, the New Realists sought new forms of artistic expression more relevant to the realities of modern life, and called into question the role of the artist and the nature of art itself.