Arman

1928 - 2005

Arman or Armand Fernandez was born on November 17, 1928, in Nice and died on October 22, 2005, in New York. He was a leading figure of the New Realism movement. He discovered Kurt Schwitters (who also inspired Jean Tinguely) and Pollock in 1953-1954. He began with accumulations of prints of objects, such as stamps. He created his first accumulation of objects in 1959, consisting of a box with light bulbs and radio tubes. Objects would become the major theme of his oeuvre; he would collect and sort objects into families, staging them via accumulations and/or destroying them. His Poubelles comprise resin casts of everyday waste. Arman and Jean Tinguely shared an interest in the detournement of everyday objects. In 1994, he created L'Accumulation de gants (The Accumulation of Gloves), using gloves collected from Le Cyclop’s construction.