Artist, Martial Raysse, assembling neon picture.In October 1960, Martial Raysse, together with Arman, Yves Klein, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeglé and the art critic and philosopher Pierre Restany founded the group Nouveaux Réalistes. The group was later joined by Cesar, Mimmo Rotella, Niki de Saint Phalle and Christo.
The Nouveaux Réalistes defined themselves as bearing in common a "new perspective approaches of reality". Their work was an attempt at reassessing the concept of art and the artist in the context of a 20th Century consumer society by reasserting the humanistic ideals in the face of industrial expansion.
