About the artwork
This collage exemplifies Nelly Kaplan’s subversive spirit and her ability to merge word and image with biting irony. By juxtaposing fragments of press headlines with archival photographs, Kaplan creates a charged dialogue about power, gender, and national identity. The work simultaneously reflects the surrealist tradition and anticipates contemporary feminist art practices, transforming seemingly ordinary materials into a politically and poetically loaded object.
Expert opinion
Kaplan’s collage resonates as both satire and social critique. Her instinct for cutting through cultural symbols with humor and provocation positions this work as more than a visual object: it is a manifesto. The choice of slate as a support further amplifies the work’s weight and permanence, contrasting with the ephemeral nature of the newspaper clippings it preserves. For collectors, Une nouvelle idée de la France represents a rare opportunity to acquire a physical piece of Kaplan’s radical imagination, bridging cinema, literature, and the visual arts.
About the artist
Nelly Kaplan (1931–2020) was an Argentinian-born French filmmaker, writer, and visual artist associated with the Surrealist movement. Known for her close ties with André Breton and her collaborations with Abel Gance in cinema, she became one of the few women to carry forward surrealist thought into the second half of the 20th century. Her films (La Fiancée du pirate, 1969) and her literary works combined eroticism, humor, and rebellion against patriarchal structures. Parallel to her work in film and writing, Kaplan created collages that extended her critique into the visual field. Today, her work is celebrated for its audacity and for the singular place she occupies at the intersection of cinema, literature, and art.
Additional info
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