Arman


Arman was a French and American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave to using them as the artworks themselves. He is best known for his Accumulations and destruction/recomposition of objects.

Early life and education

Arman's father, Antonio Fernandez, an antiques dealer from Nice, was also an amateur artist, photographer, and cellist. From his father, Arman learned oil painting and photography. After receiving his bachelor's degree in philosophy and mathematics in 1946, Arman began studying at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice. He also studied judo at a police school in Nice, where he met Yves Klein and Claude Pascal. The trio bonded closely on a subsequent hitch-hiking tour around Europe.
Completing his studies in 1949, Arman enrolled as a student at the École du Louvre in Paris, where he concentrated on the study of archaeology and Asian art. In 1951, he became a teacher at the Bushido Kai Judo Club in Madrid, Spain. In 1952, he served in the French military, completing his tour of duty as a medical orderly during the Indo-China War.

Early career

Early on, it was apparent that Arman's concept of the accumulation of vast quantities of similar objects was to remain a significant component of his art. He had originally focused more attention on his abstract paintings, considering them to be of more consequence than his early accumulations of rubber stamps. In 1962, he began welding together Accumulations of similar kinds of metal objects, such as watches or axes.

Inspiration and name change

Inspired by an exhibition for the German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters in 1954, Arman began working on Cachets, his first major artistic undertaking. At his third solo exhibition held in Paris's Galerie Iris Clert in 1958, Arman showed some of his first 2D accumulations he called Cachets. These rubber stamp marks on paper and fabric proved a success and provided a change of course in his career.
At the time, he was signing only with his first name as an homage to Van Gogh, who also signed his works with his first name, "Vincent". In 1957, Arman chose to change his name from "Armand" to "Arman". On January 31, 1973, upon becoming a citizen of the United States, he took the American civil name, "Armand Pierre Arman", but continued to use "Arman" as his public persona.

Evolution of work

From 1959 to 1962, Arman developed his most recognizable style, beginning with his two most renowned concepts: Accumulations and Poubelles. Accumulations were collections of commonplace and similar objects which he arranged within transparent polyester castings, or within Plexiglas cases. His first welded Accumulations were created in 1962.
The Poubelles were collections of strewn refuse. In 1960, he filled the Iris Clert Gallery in Paris with trash, creating Le Plein as a counterpoint to an exhibition called Le Vide at the same gallery two years earlier by his friend Yves Klein.

In October 1960, Arman, Yves Klein, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeglé, and art critic and philosopher Pierre Restany founded the Nouveau Réalisme group. Joined later by Cesar, Mimmo Rotella, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Christo, the group of young artists defined themselves as bearing in common their "new perspective approaches of reality". They were reassessing the concept of art and the artist for a 20th-century consumer society by reasserting humanistic ideals in the face of industrial expansion. Arman also became affiliated with the ZERO art movement based in Germany.
In 1961, Arman made his debut in the United States, the country which was to become his second home. During this period, he explored creation via destruction. The Coupes and the Colères featured sliced, burned, or smashed objects arranged on canvas, often using objects with a strong "identity" such as musical instruments or bronze statues.

Arman and Warhol

Arman can be seen in Andy Warhol's film Dinner at Daley's, a documentation of a dinner performance by the Fluxus artist Daniel Spoerri that Warhol filmed on March 5, 1964. Throughout the portrait-screen-test film, Arman sits in profile, looking down, appearing to be entranced in his reading, seemingly unaware of Warhol's camera, only making small gestures, rubbing his eyes, and licking the corner of his mouth. He remained silent, eyes gazing over the pages of what seemed to be a newspaper, in this four-minute, 16mm black-and-white reel. Warhol owned two of Arman's Poubelles and another accumulation called Amphetamines, which were sold at Sotheby's auction of the Andy Warhol Collection in May 1988.

Move to New York City

Fascinated with the scene in New York City, Arman took up part-time residency there from his home in Nice in 1961, after his first exhibition at the Cordier Warren Gallery. In the city, he met Marcel Duchamp at a dinner given by the artist and collector William Copley. First living at the Chelsea Hotel and later in Church street, while keeping a studio in Bowery, then in TriBeCa, Arman began work on large public sculptures.
There were varied expressions of the Accumulations, including tools, watches, clocks, furniture, automobile parts, jewelry, and musical instruments in various stages of dismemberment. Musical instruments, specifically the strings and bronze, through his collaboration with a foundry in Normandy, France, became a major theme in Arman's work.

Of Arman's Accumulations, one of the largest is Long Term Parking, which is on permanent display at the Château de Montcel in Jouy-en-Josas, France. Completed in 1982, this high sculpture consists of 60 mostly French cars set in of concrete. Just as ambitious was his 1995 work Hope for Peace, which was specially commissioned by the Lebanese government to commemorate 50 years of their military's service. Standing in once war-torn Beirut, the monument consists of 83 tanks and military vehicles.

Personal life

In 1953, Arman married electronic music composer Éliane Radigue and had two daughters, Marion and Anne and one son, Yves Arman. In 1971, he married Corice Canton Arman, with whom he had one daughter, Yasmine and one son, Philippe. In 1989, he had his sixth and last child, Yves Cesar Arman, son of Carrole Cesar.
After Arman's death in New York on October 22, 2005, some of his ashes were buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris in 2008.

Selected exhibitions and awards

1960s

1964
  • Arman, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
  • Arman, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1965
  • Arman, Museum Hans Lange, Krefeld, Germany
1966
  • Arman, Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
  • Arman, Musée de la Ville, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
1967
  • Arman, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
1969
  • Arman: Accummulations Renault :
  • *Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
  • *Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France
  • *Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
  • *Humlebaek, Denmark
  • *Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany
  • *Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
  • *Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
  • *Städtische Kunstammlungen, Ludwigshafen, Germany
  • *Kunsthaus, Zürich, Switzerland
  • *Amos Anderson Taidemuseo, Helsinki, Helsingfors, Finland

    1970s

1970
  • Arman, Modern Art Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
1973
Arman, Selected Activities. John Gibson Gallery, New York
1974
1975
1976
  • Arman, Artcurial auction house, Paris, France
1977
1978
  • Arman, Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem, Belgium
1979
  • Arman: Rétrospective, Centre d'Art et de Culture, Flaine, France

    1980s

1980
  • Arman, Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem, Belgium
1981
1982
  • Arman: Parade der Objekte: Retrospektive 1955-1982 :
  • *Kunstmuseum, Sammlung Sprengel, Hanover, Germany
  • *Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany
  • *Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
  • *Kunsthalle, Tübingen, Germany
  • *Musée Picasso, Château Grimaldi, Antibes, France
  • *Musée d'Art Contemporain Dunkerque, France
1984
  • Arman o L’Oggetto come Alfabeto: Retrospettiva 1955-1984, Museo Civico delle Belle Arti, Lugano, Switzerland
  • Arman, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Parma, Italy
1985
  • Arman, Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, Korea
  • Arman Aujourd’hui, Musée de Toulon, France
1986
  • Arman: Retrospective, Wichita State University, Ulrich Museum of Art, Kansas
  • Arman, Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem, Belgium

    1990s

1991
  • Arman in Italy, Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy
  • Arman Sculpture, Contemporary Sculpture Center, Tokyo, Japan
  • Arman: A Retrospective 1955 - 1991, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
1992
  • Il Giro di Arman, Associazione Culturale Italo-Francese, Bologna, Italy
1994
  • Le Ceramica di Arman, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza, Faenze, Italy
1995
  • Arman, Musée Royal de Mariemont, Mariemont-Chapelle, Belgium
1996
  • Arman: The Exhibition of International Sculpture Master, Modern Art Gallery, Taichung, Taïwan
1998
1999