Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé

Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé (born 1926) is a pioneering French artist best known as a co-founder of the Nouveau Réalisme movement and a leading practitioner of 'décollage,' the art of tearing and collecting weathered posters from the streets of Paris. Working since the late 1940s, he transformed anonymous layers of ripped advertising and political posters into vibrant, textured compositions that critique consumer culture and document urban life. His work is held in major international collections and has profoundly influenced generations of street and conceptual artists.