Pierre RESTANY : « nouvelle approche perceptive du réel… accumulation de fragments du réel ».
From its opening in September 1990, the gallery Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois have specialised in the research and collection of a rigorous selection of historic works by the Nouveau Realists.
« The Nouveau Realists has never been a movement unified by style. For some, it is just a circumstantial grouping of artists whose existence was infinitely short. For others, there wasn't even a group but a sort of philosophy about art and its history is still apparent today[…] Thursday 27 October 1960, The artists that Restany had already baptised as the Nouveaux Réalistes have the opportunity to have an exhibition at the Gallery Apollinaire (Milan, May 1960 : Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeglé)they meey at Yves Klein's apartment, 14, Rue Campagne-Première. Of the six artists present in Milan another two join them, Daniel Spoerri, invited by Tinguely, and Martial Raysse, invited by Arman »
(in « Les Nouveaux Réalistes », by Catherine Francblin, ed. du Regard).
Regarding this constitutive statement about Nouveau realism (signed in chalk on nine copies, seven on blue paper, one on pink paper, one on gold paper) Arman declares: « The Nouveau Réalisme is the shortest movement in the whole of the history of art. Twenty minutes after its constitution, it falls apart.
Today, we consider that the Nouveau Réalisme movement consists of thirteen members:
Arman
César
Christo
Deschamps, Gérard
Dufrêne, François
Hains, Raymond
Klein, Yves
Raysse, Martial
Rotella, Mimmo
Saint-Phalle, Niki
Spoerri, Daniel
Tinguely, Jean
Villeglé, Jacques
The gallery finds it interesting to compare their work with that of Jean-Pierre Raynaud.
In addition to the permanent collection of works by this movement in the gallery, Georges Phillippe & Nathalie Vallois have regularly dedicated large exhibitions regarding the members of Nouveau Réalisme.
For example, in September – October 1991, les Bétons (1970-1974) by Arman.
These works had only been shown once before by the M.A.M.V.P. (Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris) in 1976.
Then, in April – May 1995, the gallery showed the Accumulations Renault, works created by Arman during his collaboration with Renault between 1967 and 1969. These works had never been presented in a gallery; they were shown only in 1970 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
For the third exhibition of this artist, the gallery held an exhibition in june-july 2000, Fragmentations where, in one installation created for the gallery space, Arman revived the « cuts » dating back from the beginning of the 1960's.
In January 2006, the gallery decided to dedicate a tribute to the recently passed away artist and presented the exhibition No Comment.
In January 2010, the first big retrospective in the gallery is organised for the artist François Dufrêne, Sur les Dessous. It is accompanied by a publication with a preface by Aude Bodet.
Finally, since 1999, the gallery has been continually representing on of the members of the Nouveau Réalisme : Jacques Villeglé. A programme of twelve exhibitions accompanied by catalogs edited by the gallery has been put into place, taking the twelve themes of the Catalogue Raisonné belonging to the artist. Today, seven categories have been explored: Mots, Images, Sans Lettre Sans Figure, Politiques, la Lettre Lacérée, les Petits Formats et la Peinture dans la Non Peinture.