(1930-2003)

Motivated by ethics rather than by aesthetics, the outspoken, caustic art reviews of Pierre Restany were directed during the sixties against the cultural policy of France, against the conservatism of the conservatives, against the superficiality of museums..., being however a great ambassador of French production and participating in the theoretical debates through his relationship with the New Realism. Le petit livre rouge de la révolution pictural and Livre blanc de l’art total are the result of his reflections on the sociological structures of contemporary art around 1968. During the seventies and through his contact with artists such as Dani Karavan and with architects such as Alessandro Mendini, the interests of Restany shifted towards urbanism and the relationships between the artistic object and the mass produced object in postindustrial society. Born in Casablanca, educated in Paris and in love with Milan, Restany died of a heart attack at 72 and left a rich written legacy, which includes Une vie dans l’art, his works about Yves Klein and his numerous collaborations in the magazines Ars, which he directed, and Domus.