French artist Raymond Hains, a member of the new-realism movement who was famous for his shredded posters, has died at age 78, French officials said.
Hains banded together with leading artists, including Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely and Arman, to found new realism in 1960. The movement, based on the ”poetic recycling” of everyday objects, provided a European counterpoint to pop art.
Born on November 9 1926 in Saint-Brieuc in the Brittany region, Hains died in Paris on October 28 2005, French media said.
”We have lost one of the key artists of the last 50 years, the creator of a personal mythology who knew how to mine with great daring, and also great humour, the depths of images and language, of form and verb,” Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said in a statement.
Hains, who shared his time between Paris and the Riviera resort town of Nice, was fond of elaborate visual and verbal games that earned him the nickname of ”king of the metaphysical pun”. — Sapa-AP