Under the direction of the critic Pierre Restany, Nouveau Réalisme was formed at the flat of Yves Klein in Paris, on October 27, 1960. This movement was made up of 13 artists including Klein, and many of them eventually became world-famous artists. However, despite of this interesting fact, their activities as a group have not been discussed sufficiently in the past. But now, there is no doubt that Nouveau Réalisme is being historically re-evaluated all over the world. In this article, following this trend, we attempt to reexamine the movement by considering their “poetics”. Nouveau Réalisme was supported by Restany’s theory of “appropriation of the real”. But this theory was neither accepted by all participants, nor so effective to analyze their works. So, we reconsider the theory of Restany, and try to separate works of Nouveau Réalisme from the concept of appropriation. Our aim is to clarify their thoughts presented in their works themselves, and to illuminate them as poetics of Nouveau Réalisme. Our proposition is below: their particularity should be sought in “making a new sight” or “new perceptual approach to reality”, and it is here that their poetics are found.
