Biography

Raymond Hains (1926–2005) is widely regarded as one of the most important French artists of the second half of the twentieth century. Along the experimental work on photography and film that he first developed in the 40’s and 50’s, Hains is well-known for his affiches lacérées: from 1949, with fellow artist Jacques Villeglé, they started to use found torn posters from the streets in creating hypergraphics and ready-made ‘paintings’. This neo-Dadaist spirit would inform the rest of his career. Often associated with the Nouveau Réalisme (1960), Raymond Hains opened the way to a singular vision of art: he initiated a vocabulary based on literature, philosophy and esotericism, towards linguistic speculations. He constantly created new forms (from the Palissades starting in 1959 to the Sidewalk Sculptures and the Macintoshages – computer-based manipulations from the 90's) through all the poetic, playful and visual possibilities of the language.