Nouveau Réalisme is a movement comprising those artists who, along with critic and theoretician Pierre Restany signed the founding declaration on October 27, 1960 in Paris: Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely und Jacques de la Villeglé. César, Mimmo Rotella, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Gérard Deschamps and Christo joined the movement later.

The members set themselves the goal - and in this they certainly were in accord with representatives of American Pop Art - of shattering the lofty status of visual art and, in rejecting abstract art informel, of integrating the reality of everyday life into art using new techniques and materials. They thus made a significant contribution to the development of object art and the early forms of actionist art.