Photo By Gail

While living in Paris in the late 1950s, artist Martial Raysse (b. 1936) started to assemble sculptures from plastic objects he collected. They were often sourced from Prisunic, a French department store that sold cheap, mass-produced goods.

The presence of these brightly colored items reflects the changing consumer dynamics of 1960s Europe. For Necropolis (1960), pink and blue pills, a tiny baby doll and other items are stacked precisely on top of each other, creating an obelisk form. Raysse’s preoccupation with everyday objects and new mediums led him to cofound the Nuoveau Realisme (New Realism) movement in 1960.

Photographed in the Tate Modern Museum in London