Arman

Arman, Armand Pierre Fernandez actually ( born November 17, 1928 in Nice, † October 22, 2005 in New York ) was a French- American artist and cofounder of the object New Realism. Inspired by a printing error on the invitation cards for exhibition in the Galerie Iris Clert, he took in 1958 to the artist Arman name (without the final "d"). Arman had since 1972 an American citizen and lived in France and the United States.

Life and work

Arman was the only child of his father Antonio, antique dealer and son of a wealthy Spanish family from Algeria. He attended the " Lycée du Parc impérial " in Nice, where he met the Baccalauréat (focus on philosophy and mathematics ) completed his schooling in 1946. In the same year followed until 1949 studying at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice.

In a judo club he met Yves Klein in 1947. Like him, he sat down in the 1947/ 53 with the Buddhism and the secret society of the Rosicrucians apart, and with astrology and the teaching of Georges I. Gurdjieff. During a road journey with Klein and Claude Pascal trip to Europe in 1947 he decided to become famous by his first name Armand. In 1949, he began to be auctioneer, with the aim at the École du Louvre in Paris, a two-year study of archeology and oriental art. At the same time he devoted himself to painting and created by surrealism embossed paintings, but the encounter with the art critic Pierre Restany in 1951 should take in the following years a decisive influence on his later artistic career.

1952 graduated arm his military service in the war in Indochina, married in 1953 Eliane Radigue that he had met two years earlier and returned with her ​​back to Nice. Versatile interested, he came to terms with both the African art as well as with the works of Serge Poliakoff and Nicolas de Staël, while the style of his paintings transformed to abstraction. 1954 saw the artist works by Jackson Pollock, who interacted with the art work, such as the application of the " all-over " principle. Finally him of visiting an exhibition of works by Kurt Schwitters at the Paris gallery of Heinz Berggruen inspired his first cachets (1955 ) or stamp images. these he showed together with paintings in his first exhibition in the Galerie du took place in 1956 Haut- Pavé. followed in 1957 traveling through Turkey and Afghanistan, 1958 through Iran. During the same year he took the name Arman.

1959 gave Arman painting - which he only in 1988 should again turn - on and experimented with his first allures d' objets ( imprints articles colored on canvas and paper) and with the contents of trash cans and recycle bins, from which in 1959 the first Poubelles mentioned works were created. He called the clusters of identical items accumulations.

On 23 October 1960, the artist came abruptly by the occasion of his exhibition " Le Plein " at Galerie Iris Clert caused scandal to fame. This event was preceded by a no less startling, " Le Vide " titled exhibition of Yves Klein in 1958. This had allowed dispel the gallery, the walls painted white and illuminated the empty space with a bluish light. Then Arman responded in his exhibition of 1960 by letting fill the gallery brimming with filth.

One of the most significant events in Arman's career was a few days later, on 27 October 1960 in Yves Klein's Paris apartment, the foundation of the movement Les Nouveaux Realists by Pierre Restany. In addition to Arman and Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely Martial Raysse were present at the Daniel Spoerri, Jacques Villeglé, Raymond Hains, François Dufrêne involved. He made acquaintance with the American artists Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Larry Rivers in Paris. In addition, there were, on Klein's brother Günther Uecker, contacts with the Düsseldorf artist group ZERO.

1961 Arman realized the first colères ( tantrums ), actions involving items such as violins and double basses were smashed. He made ​​the acquaintance of Marcel Duchamp. In 1963 he extended the concept of colères, where he begins to cut objects ( coupes ) and blow up with dynamite ( combustions ) and issue the leftovers. Since 1964, the inclusions formed, cast in polyester accumulations, from 1970 " invisible " because cast into concrete objects. 1966 emerged the first accumulations of paint tubes in Plexiglas. Participation in the World Expo in Montreal in 1967 with accumulations of auto parts.

In its action in the Reese Palley slicing Gallery in New York in 1970 articles brought by Arman were visitors cut or sawn and sold Panther in favor of the defense fund of the Black. In 1971 a series of organic poubelles in polyester. By pouring into a polyester pre-selection is in terms of durability no longer necessary, which was required in the early Poubelles in plexiglass. The 1975 Happening Conscious Vandalism in the New York's John Gibbson Gallery in a furnished by him and Corice for this purpose American middle class apartment, were smashed by Arman. In the same year he made a trip to Egypt. In 1978 he realized large-scale sculptures in Dijon and Dearborn. The following year he undertook a journey among others to archaeological sites in the People's Republic of China and lived in Moscow.

1982, the work Long Term Parking was inaugurated, a 18 -meter high installation 1600 tons of concrete with 59 cars trapped in the castle park of Montcel in Jouy -en- Josas. 1985 was a stage set for Ravel's L'heure espagnole musical comedy, which was performed at the Komische Oper in Paris. Among other large-scale projects in public space 1987 Ascent of the Blues was born, a 12 -meter-high double spiral of pianos, guitars and banjos in Memphis.

Arman turned to painting again in 1988. A series of 13 paintings that issued the Parisian Galerie Beaubourg at the Centre Georges Pompidou, was used to illustrate to Arthur Rimbaud's " Lettre du Voyant ." By the brush, whose track he pulled on the canvases in broad, gestural sweeps, at the end their orbits fixed on the image carriers, Arman joined principles of abstract expressionism with those of the New Realists. the Musée des Beaux -Arts in Nîmes Arman plated in four days four walls of a 80 square meter hall with color and a total of 2,400 brushes.

Arman presented in 1991 portraits of great composers from Johann Sebastian Bach to Béla Bartók, where he was made up of those instruments, which was characteristic for the particular music of the composer portrayed in question.

1995 was in Beirut, the 32 meter high monument Hope for Peace on 83 cast in concrete tanks and military vehicles.

Armand Pierre Fernandez died in 2005 at the age of 76 years in New York. He was buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. On his grave there is a plate with the laconic remark " Enfin Seul! " ( Alone at last! ) And his signature.

He was from 1953 to 1971 first marriage with the French composer Eliane Radigue (* 1932), who bore him three children. The couple lived separately since 1970. After the divorce, married Arman 1971 in Nice Corice Canton. From this marriage two children were born.

Awards

Work

Arman is best known for its accumulation, in which he amassed groups of left unchanged or destroyed items with the same function. This arm grabbed these collections in object boxes of wood or plexiglass, encircled them with casting resin, mounted them on wood panels, welded them together or even used concrete when he made large outdoor sculptures. He wanted to make it clear that items with the same function, size and look are by no means identical, but have individual properties that are identified in a accumulation that.

Arman used consciously other terms for clusters of different types of objects. Personal belongings of a famous person gathered arm in robotic portraits, and by 1959/60 filled in glass boxes contents of a wastebasket he calls Poubelle. With them he presented ironically the one-sided nature of mass consumption products in question.

Selections

Exhibitions

Literature and Film

• New Realism. Revolution of everyday life, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2007; ISBN 978-3-7757-2058-8
• Art collection of North Rhine -Westphalia (ed.): Insights. The 20th century in art collection Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern- Ruit 2000; ISBN 3-7757-0853-7
• Dominique Rimbault (director): Arman, Portrait d'un sculpteur. Film, 52 minutes in 1997, with the participation of Arman and Pierre Restany
• Jean -Louis Ferrier and Yann le Pichon (ed. ): L' Aventure de l'art au XXe siècle. Editions du Chêne, Paris, 1990; ISBN 2-85108-677-4.