Raymond Hains
Encyclopedia
Raymond Hains was a French
artist and photographer.
using mirrors or taken through deforming glass, which were shown in Paris in 1948. In 1950, he invented the concept of the "Ultra-lettre" and devoted himself to his lettres éclatées (shattered letters).
In the 1950s, together with fellow affichiste
Jacques de la Villeglé he started using collage
and found, torn posters from street advertisements in creating Ultra-Lettrist
psychogeographical hypergraphics. This neo-Dadaist spirit would inform the rest of his career. In 1957, he exhibited his torn posters in Paris. In 1959, he exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and was represented at the first Paris Biennale. In 1960, he exhibited an illustration from the Encyclopédie Clartés at the Salon Comparaisons (he was known as "Raymond the Abstract") and travelled to Italy. In 1960, he signed the manifesto of Nouveau Réalisme with Jacques de la Villeglé and Yves Klein
; they would later be joined by artists Daniel Spoerri
, Arman
and Martial Raysse
. The "New Realism" movement would -- like Pop art
in New York -- praise and criticize the mass-produced consumer object in assemblages and installations. In 1961, he was represented at the exhibition Bewogen Beweging, Stedelijk Museum
, Amsterdam, also shown at Stockholm and Humblebaek, and at The Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York, later shown at Dallas and San Francisco. He distanced himself from "Nouveau Réalisme" in 1963. In 1964, he was represented at the Venice Biennale. His torn posters were shown at the Galleria Apollinaire, Milan, in 1965. In 1964, he invented the artists Seita and Saffa--their names are taken from French and Italian National tobacco companies, respectively--and attributed a body of work to them, including the giant book of matches first shown in Paris in 1965. With Seita and Saffa, Hains created an artistic fiction resulting in a range of products located somewhere between Pop art
and ironic capitalist enterprise.Between 1968 and 1971 he lived in Venice. He showed three very enlarged books of matches at the documenta "4" in Kassel. He returned to Paris in 1971.
For Documenta
X, invited by curator Catherine David in 1997 to return to Kassel
, Hains exhibited in a Kassel shop rather than at the Fredericianum and organized a street parade that traveled through the city, led by a larger-than-life-size mannequin of the late Iris Clert, Hains's gallerist and a towering figure in the Paris art world of the 1960s. Towards the end of his life, Hains exhibited on various occasions at Galerie W in Montmartre.
Hains won the Kurt Schwitters
prize in 1997.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
artist and photographer.
Biography
In 1945, Hains briefly enrolled in the sculpture course at the École des Beaux-Arts, Rennes and met Jacques de la Villeglé that same year. He then collaborated with E. Sougez as a photographer for France-Illustration. In 1946-47 he did his first abstract photographs (Photographies hypnagogiques) inspired by SurrealismSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
using mirrors or taken through deforming glass, which were shown in Paris in 1948. In 1950, he invented the concept of the "Ultra-lettre" and devoted himself to his lettres éclatées (shattered letters).
In the 1950s, together with fellow affichiste
Affichiste
Artists Raymond Hains and Jacques Villeglé explored, during the early 1950s, a new way of making collages from fragments of torn posters. Because of that specific innovative technique, they took the name "affichistes" . An exhibit of their works in 1957 termed their works affiches lacérées ....
Jacques de la Villeglé he started using collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
and found, torn posters from street advertisements in creating Ultra-Lettrist
Ultra-Lettrist
The Ultra-Lettrist movement was an art form developed by Jean-Louis Brau, Gil J Wolman, and Francois Dufrêne, in the 1950's, when they split from Isidore Isou's Lettrism....
psychogeographical hypergraphics. This neo-Dadaist spirit would inform the rest of his career. In 1957, he exhibited his torn posters in Paris. In 1959, he exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and was represented at the first Paris Biennale. In 1960, he exhibited an illustration from the Encyclopédie Clartés at the Salon Comparaisons (he was known as "Raymond the Abstract") and travelled to Italy. In 1960, he signed the manifesto of Nouveau Réalisme with Jacques de la Villeglé and Yves Klein
Yves Klein
Yves Klein was a French artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. He is the leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany...
; they would later be joined by artists Daniel Spoerri
Daniel Spoerri
Daniel Spoerri is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania, who has been called "the central figure of European post-war art" and "one of the most renown[ed] [artists] of the 20th century." Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures...
, Arman
Arman
Arman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...
and Martial Raysse
Martial Raysse
Martial Raysse is a French artist born in Golfe-Juan on 12 February 1936. He lives in Issigeac - France.-Biography: Raysse was born in a ceramicist family in Vallauris and began to paint and write poetry at age 12. After studying and practising athleticism at a high level, he began to accumulate...
. The "New Realism" movement would -- like Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
in New York -- praise and criticize the mass-produced consumer object in assemblages and installations. In 1961, he was represented at the exhibition Bewogen Beweging, Stedelijk Museum
Stedelijk Museum
Founded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, Amsterdam, also shown at Stockholm and Humblebaek, and at The Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York, later shown at Dallas and San Francisco. He distanced himself from "Nouveau Réalisme" in 1963. In 1964, he was represented at the Venice Biennale. His torn posters were shown at the Galleria Apollinaire, Milan, in 1965. In 1964, he invented the artists Seita and Saffa--their names are taken from French and Italian National tobacco companies, respectively--and attributed a body of work to them, including the giant book of matches first shown in Paris in 1965. With Seita and Saffa, Hains created an artistic fiction resulting in a range of products located somewhere between Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
and ironic capitalist enterprise.Between 1968 and 1971 he lived in Venice. He showed three very enlarged books of matches at the documenta "4" in Kassel. He returned to Paris in 1971.
For Documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
X, invited by curator Catherine David in 1997 to return to Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, Hains exhibited in a Kassel shop rather than at the Fredericianum and organized a street parade that traveled through the city, led by a larger-than-life-size mannequin of the late Iris Clert, Hains's gallerist and a towering figure in the Paris art world of the 1960s. Towards the end of his life, Hains exhibited on various occasions at Galerie W in Montmartre.
Hains won the Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
prize in 1997.