Martial Raysse
Spring, 1963–64
Oil on oilcloth, neon tube, and transformer
61 1/4 x 51 1/8 x 3 1/4 inches (155.6 x 129.9 x 8.3 cm)
© Martial Raysse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein
To track life down in the realm of color, I tried using plastics, fluorescence, relationships that were untrue, out of key, or paintings with errors… flawed and faulty… or bad taste… the hideous and the horrible. And now especially, by using neon and artificial lighting, I seek in transcendental color a substitute for life. Neon also favors movement that is without agitation. It gives the idea of action or of spring bottled-up.
—Martial Raysse, 1967
This statement by Martial Raysse conveys the eclectic spirit of his work and his persistent use of unconventional materials. He began to pursue this direction in the late ’50s, as part of a group of artists who were brought together under the term Nouveau Réalisme, coined by the critic Pierre Restany. Raysse, Yves Klein, Arman, and Christo, among others, engaged in highly conceptual endeavors, focusing on how materials could be employed to express the experience of their postwar milieu. However, Raysse’s view of the modern condition as a source of aesthetic pleasure—with new forms, colors, and feelings—would soon cause him to distance himself from Nouveau Réalisme.
Beginning in 1962, Raysse introduced a new element to his work: neon lights. This made him, alongside Lucio Fontana, Joseph Kosuth, and Dan Flavin, one of the first artists to employ neon in his artistic practice and to incorporate its particular sensory and aesthetic qualities. He would later declare that he “used neon as something to go beyond color.” The present work, Spring (1963–64) united Raysse’s experiments with lit neon and his commitment to painting, creating a hybrid of the two media.
Spelled out in cursive script, the neon elements of Spring sit atop the canvas’s blooming field of flowers. Flattened into a dense, repeated pattern, the hand-painted work resembles wallpaper, emphasizing artificiality in its depiction of nature. Using neon light to express, as he wrote, “spring bottled up,” Raysse created a contemporary allegory of our relationship with nature.
The present work debuted in the May 1964 exhibition of Raysse’s work at Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles—the artist’s second presentation there. Spring took its place amid an installation of paintings and sculpture that bridged tradition with the contemporary. The current owners of Spring acquired the work from Dwan during this exhibition and it has since remained in their collection. Raysse’s exhibition at Dwan, including an array of other works with strikingly contemporary floral motifs, preceded Andy Warhol’s Flowers series, which the American Pop artist began in the summer of 1964. However, unlike Warhol’s silkscreened Flowers, Raysse confirmed his commitment to painting as a medium in Spring, accentuating its effects in his application and composition. Spring at once imagines nature mediated by artifice and celebrates the beauty, fertility, and bounteous spirit of the season. The bilingual Raysse also created a companion work to Spring titled Printemps (1963–64), which is now held by the Menil Collection, Houston.