Raymond Hains

Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a French artist.

Raymond Hains was born in Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor) and studied at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Rennes before coming to Paris to present his first exhibition of “hypnagogic” photographs and starting a body of work with torn posters from the streets. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, Dufrêne, Klein, Tinguely, Villeglé and Pierre Restany, the Manifesto of New Realism. However, he soon distanced himself from the movement to develop his own line of research through the tools of language, analogy, chance and coincidence, revealing the hidden connections between these disparate elements. From the 1950s onwards, Hains took part in several exhibitions and international events such as the “Documenta IV” in Kassel, the first Biennale of Paris, the first shows of The New Realism in Milan and Paris, the exhibitions “Paris-Paris” and “Paris-New York” at the Centre Georges-Pompidou as well as “Westkunst” and “Bilderstreit” in Cologne. His works have been presented in several museums in France and abroad. He was awarded the Kurt Schwitters Prize in 1997. Several famous art critics have written about him and many books have been written about his artwork.

On June 8, 1944, in Laval, Raymond Hains came upon a book entitled “Photographie Française 1839-1936” whose cover, designed by Emmanuel Sougez, happened to be a photomontage picturing an accumulation of lenses of varying sizes with an eye at the center. Hains decided to become a photographer on that day. Armed with his Kodak camera, he then took photographs of war damages, ruins and walls destroyed by bombing.

In 1945, he enrolled in the Sculpture Workshop of the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, where he became friend with Jacques Villeglé. He soon gave up sculpture to dedicate himself to philosophical readings in the gardens of the city. Shortly afterwards, he left for Paris where, in October 1945, he began his apprenticeship with Emmanuel Sougez, director of the photography department at France-Illustration who needed young people who would work for him in his laboratory. There, he gained a good technical knowledge in photography.

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