Réalités Nouvelles No. 2, 1948
A. Frédo Sidés [Président-Fondateur]
[Paris]: Comité du Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, 1948. Original edition. Text in French. Perfect bound and sewn lithographic wrappers. 87 pp. 231 abstract artists represented by halftone reproductions and occasional artists statements. Textblock lightly annotated underlining and circling in red pencil. Closed tear to fore edge of rear wrapper. Spine uniformly worn and wrappers mildly soiled. A very good copy. Rare.
9 x 11.125-inch French art journal with 87 pages devoted to 231 abstract artists represented by halftone reproductions and occasional artists statements. Assembled and published by the Comité du Salon des Réalités Nouvelles as the Postwar continuation of the Abstraction-création Group founded by Georges Vantongerloo, Theo van Doesburg, Auguste Herbin and Jean Hélion in Paris in 1931 to provide self-promotion for non-figurative abstract art and—just as importantly—opposition against the growing force of André Breton’s figurative Surrealism.
As Salon Vice-Président Auguste Herbin directly connected the reconstituted Réalités Nouvelles with the Prewar Abstraction-création Group. Both groups shared two minimal yet clearly articulated criteria needed to be fulfilled in order to claim membership in the associations: one had to be an artist and one had to work non-figuratively. This resulted in a list of members that included long-forgotten artists as well as names such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Calder, Delaunay, Van Doesburg, and Brancusi.
Réalités Nouvelles No. 2, 1948 featured a amazing full page information graphic tracing the evolution of modern art from Impressionisme to Réalités Nouvelles [see scan] followed by this alphabetical list of the 231 participants: Atlan, Allner, Borbercki, Bauer, Bérard, Bryen, Béothy, Braat, Burgin, Bissier, Boers, Bouhéret, Berke, Belson, Max Bill, Bodmer, Ilya Bolotowsky, Biedma, Boumeester, Breuer, Harry Bertoia, Bert, Bresle, Baumeister, Bresler, Bonnier, Bombeli, Birkel, Canguilhem, Consagra, Coppel, Citron, Clément, Coëffin, Chantarel, Chermayeff, Colombier, Collignon, Closon, Chevalier, Cray, Chesney, Claude Manoir, Crénovich, Cavael, Courtin, Coulon, Davis, Lucy Del Marle, Dewasne, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Deyrolle, Dworzan, Delahaut, Dorazio, Duthoo, Del Marle, Delmonte, Domela, Debrunner, Del Prete, Engel, Euzet, Eichmann, Engel-Pak, Eblé, Edwards Elliott, Erzinger, Espinoza, Fontana, Fontené, Fiorini, Falchi, Fleischmann, Falkenstein, Féjer, Fine, Filianos, Fietz, Fischli, Folmer, Fassbender, Fabra, Gazier, Guerrini, Ghikas, Graumann, Gandon, Gyarmathy, Guillot, Gremeret, Gay, Gear, Gorin, Gilioli, Gabrielli, Goetz, Govin, Graf, Geiger, Hubert, Hinterreiter, Huber, Hamm, Hlito, Harris, Hartung, Herbin, Iommi, Joseffy, Janin, Kinnen, Kolthoff, Kosice, Klein, Richard Koppe, Kosnick-Kloss, Knoop-Guitou, Kerns, Kupka, Kleint, Klausz, Laforcade, Laloux, Lardera, Leppien, Lempereur-Haut, Richard P. Lohse, Lorin-Kalder, Lossonczy, Lerowy, Laan, Loubchansky, Loewensberg, Lemarchand, Leuppi, Lhotellier, Molemberg, Mele, Martyn, Marosan, Mandorlo, Mintus, Mathieu, Mason, Martinszky, Malespine, Martin, Moss, Megyeri, Magnelli, Tomás Maldonaldo, Montheillet, Marc, Nouveau, Nixon, Nay, Ney, Nickle, Néjad, Nitsch, Nau, Oppenheim, Olive-Tamari, Olofsson, Platt, Pereyra, Picabia, Portin, Pierri, Peyrissac, Préaux, Poliakoff, Périlli, Prati, Piaubert, Rothfuss, Ritschl, Radou, Reichmann-Lewis,Hilla Rebay, Rasas Pet, Raymond, Reth, Ris, Righetti, Signovert, Sauer, Sogno, Soulages, Smadja, Schnabel, Schneider, Scarlett, Servrankx, Souza, Stern, Stahly, Sottsass, Suros, Smith, Schöffer, Seliger, Spiller, Tague, Trier, Turcato, Toutut, Uricchio, Urech, Vardanegas, Valentin, Violette Lossonczy, Villaba, Villeri, Valensi, Vaserely, Vulliamy, Vasseur, Varaud, Vallot, Winter, Weber, Warb, Wolff, Emerson Woelffer, Wallace, Wendt, Jean Xceron, and Zemplényi.
Abstraction-Création was an association of abstract artists set up in Paris in 1931 with the aim of promoting abstract art through group exhibitions. The leaders of Abstraction-Création were Auguste Herbin and Georges Vantongerloo, but every major abstract painter took part including such figures as Naum Gabo, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian, and it rapidly acquired membership of around four hunded. Abstraction-Création embraced the whole field of abstract art, but tended towards the more austere forms represented by concrete art, constructivism and neo-plasticism. Regular exhibitions were held until 1936 and five annual publications were issued. The most important artists in the Abstraction-Création group were later represented, mostly several times, at the Documenta in Kassel, especially from 1955 to 1964 at documenta 1, documenta II and documenta III, which focused on abstract art.
The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles was established in Paris in 1946 to celebrate abstract art and affirm its place as the predominant aesthetic of the post-war era. The phrase was originally coined by Guillaume Appolinaire, and the association evolved out of the Abstraction Création group of the 1930’s. The first committee was led by Fredo Sidès and included Jean Arp, Sonia Delaunay, and Albert Gleizes, frustrated with the Establishment’s slowness to embrace the abstract movement. By 1948 it had grown to include artists from 17 nations, and Solomon Guggenheim joined the committee. The association marked a bold transition from the Occupation years when the Nazis prohibited Abstract Art as “degenerate.” The Réalités Nouvelles was to define a new era of progressive liberty, not of a singular ideology, but a diversity of “new realities.”