Collection: Bernard Rancillac

Bernard Rancillac (1931–2017) was a French painter and a central figure in Figuration Narrative — the movement that emerged in France in the mid-1960s as a politically engaged alternative to American Pop Art. Alongside artists such as Gilles Aillaud, Eduardo Arroyo, and Erró, Rancillac drew on the visual language of mass media, advertising, comic strips, and cinema to produce work that was explicitly critical of consumer society, colonialism, and political power.

He exhibited widely throughout the 1960s and 70s, including at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture, where he was a key organiser, and at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris — one of the most significant contemporary galleries of the period. His work engaged directly with current events: the Vietnam War, the May 1968 uprisings, and the contradictions of postwar French culture.

Rancillac's work is held in major French public collections including the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

The New Rare holds printed matter and exhibition ephemera related to Bernard Rancillac, including invitation cards and documents from his exhibitions at Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris.