Pierre Restany

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Pierre Restany (born 24 June 1930, died 29 May 2003), was a French art critic.

He was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning to France in 1949 he attended the Lycée Henri-IV before studying at universities in France, Italy and Ireland.

From their first meeting in 1955, Restany maintained a strong tie with Yves Klein, creator of the extraordinary "Klein-blue" of intense spiritual charge defined by Restany as a "phenomenon of pure contemplation."

Restany coined the term "Nouveau Realisme," which in 1960 united a group of French and Italian artists, as the European answer to the American New Dada and Pop Art. The group included Klein with Arman and Jean Tinguely among others. ^[1] The dissolution of the borders between art and life, the art-like experience, the art as utopia was the flags of the French critic. Restany had entered in intense relationships with Italy that made him considered it its second native land. The creed of the Nouveau Realisme was diffused through collaboration in Milan with Guido Le Noci, director of the Studio Apollinaire.

From 1963 onwards he edited the art and architectural arts magazine Domus and divided his time between Paris and Milan.

In the early 1970s he took a strong interest in the work of the Sociological art collective.

Restany died in Paris in 2003.

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