Photographs, undated

This collection fills one half-size box and spans the years of 1939 to 1958. The collection contains autograph letters, administrative documents, manuscript material, and several photographs.

The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles was a Paris group that promoted geometric abstract art during the post-WWII period.  The salon, or exhibiting society, was formed in 1946 and is seen as a continuation of "Abstraction-Création: art non figuratif," which was a loose ensemble of proponents of abstract art that formed in 1931 to offer an alternative to the figurative/representational tendencies of André Breton's Surrealists.  The Salon took its name and original direction from a 1939 exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier, which took its name, "Réalités Nouvelles," from a 1912 quote of Apollinaire.  The Salon held great influence in the art world until the late 1950s, when its clout began to wane, though it is still currently in existence.

The intent of the group was to forge a "new reality," divorced from any representational connection to the physical world.  They promoted artists and ideas by organizing exhibitions and publishing corresponding catalogs, as well as through their annual cahier, " Réalités Nouvelles."  Some styles/movements represented here include the Concrete artists, Constructivists, and Abstract Expressionists.