MILAN, Jan. 13, 2006—Italian artist Mimmo Rotella, best known for collages made from old and weathered posters he stripped off walls in Rome, has died in Milan, reports The New York Times. He was 87.

One of the last surviving members of the French Nouveaux Réalistes, which also included Yves Klein, Arman and Jean Tinguely, Rotella began making his now seminal collages in the early 1950s, after reaching the conclusion that there was nothing left to do in painting, writes Ken Johnson.

Rotella was included in many Nouveax Réalistes exhibitions throughout Europe and was the Italian representative to the Venice Biennale in 1964. Some of his early works were included in the High and Low exhibition at MoMA in 1990, and in 1994 he was included in The Italian Metamorphosis, a major survey of post-World War II Italian art at the Guggenheim Museum.

NY Times: Artist Mimmo Rotella dies at Eighty-Seven