Martial Raysse (born 12 February 1936) is a French artist and actor. He lives inIssigeac, France. He holds the record for the most expensive work sold by a living French artist.^[1]

Raysse was born in a ceramicist family inVallauris and began to paint and write poetry at age 12. After studying and practising athleticism at a high level, he began to accumulate rubbish odds and ends that he preserved under plexiglas. In 1958, he exhibited some of his paintings withJean Cocteau atGalerie Longchamp.

Fascinated by the beauty of plastic, he plundered low-costs shops with plastic items and developed what became his "vision hygiene" concept; a vision that showcasesconsumer society. This work received attention and critical praise in 1961, and at a commercial gallery inMilan, his exhibition sold out 15 minutes before the opening. Raysse then traveled to the United States to get involved with thepop art scene in New York City.

In October 1960, Raysse, together withArman,Yves Klein,François Dufrêne,Raymond Hains,Daniel Spoerri,Jean Tinguely,Jacques Villeglé and the art critic and philosopherPierre Restany founded the groupNouveaux Réalistes. The group was later joined byCésar,Mimmo Rotella,Niki de Saint Phalle andChristo. This group of artists 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 thehumanistic ideals in the face of industrial expansion.

In 2011 Raysse's painting,Last Year in Capri (Exotic Title), sold for $6.58 million at Christie's auction, the most expensive price paid for a work by a living French artist.^[1] The sale coincided with a resurgence in interest among collectors for Raysse's work. Attention to Raysse had waned after he moved into classicist painting in the 1960s while abstraction was peaking.^[1] The 1993 purchase of his work and commissions by billionaireFrançois Pinault drew more attention to Raysse.^[1]

Raysse acted in Jean-Pierre Prévost's 1971 filmJupiter.^[2] He then wrote and directed the 1972 filmLe grand départ.^[3]

• Par la juste mesure dans le double monde, 1985, video art documentary byMaurice Benayoun about the installation with the same title exhibited during the last Biennale de Paris. Part of the series of videoPièces à conviction(Maurice Benayoun, 1985).

• kamel mennour - Martial RaysseArchived 2016-03-04 at theWayback Machine
• Raysse at Tate
• Martial Raysse in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website

• 1936 births
• 20th-century French painters
• 20th-century French male artists
• French male painters
• 21st-century French painters
• 21st-century French male artists
• French mixed-media artists
• Living people
• Nouveau réalisme artists
• Neon artists
• 20th-century French sculptors
• French male sculptors
• French contemporary artists
• 20th-century French printmakers

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