Arman

Pierre Arman, whose birth name was Armand Fernandez, was born in Nice, France in 1928. His first exposure to art training was given to him by his father. He began his painting study in 1946 at the Ecole Nationale dArt Decoratif in Nice, where he also earned degrees in mathematics and philosophy. Arman completed his studies in Nice in 1949, and went on to the Ecole du Louvre, studying oriental art and archaeology.

Some of his first works were in abstract and Surrealist styles. Arman was impressed by the works of Kurt Schwitters at an exhibition in Paris in 1954, and was inspired to begin working with stamp imprints known as cachets. Arman had his first exhibitions in London and Paris in 1956. He began his "Accumulations" in 1959, where collections of like, everyday objects were crowded together in boxes, or vitrines. Since the objects were not arranged, an element of chance was introduced into his work.

The evolution of his name is interesting. As an admirer of Van Gogh, Arman appreciated that signing only the last name was unique. This inspired him to become known simply as Armand, but when a gallery mistakenly omitted the "d" from his name in 1958, he decided to use "Arman" permanently. In 1973, he officially changed his name to Armand Pierre Arman after gaining United States Citizenship.

Arman and Yves Klein founded the Nouveaux Realisme, which focused on creating different and new ways of thinking about real life and art. In 1958, Klein opened an exhibition consisting of empty gallery space to intrigue viewers about non-material things. In 1960 Arman responded with an exhibition in which he filled the gallery with debris he collected from the streets of Paris. He believed that these non-utilized items had their own distinctive worth, which should not be lost.

Arman visited New York City for the first time in 1961, where his work was shown as part of an exhibition called "The Art of Assemblage" at the Museum of Modern Art. He began to spend more time in New York after Klein passed away in 1962. In 1964, Arman's first museum retrospectives occurred at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. From the 1970s through the 1990s, his art was primarily created for public participation and display.

His largest work, "Long Term Parking" (1982), was a concrete tower of 60 cars, 65 feet high, standing in front of a suburban parking lot in Paris. Another of his large works, entitled "Lucky" resides on the Academy campus in Daphne, Alabama, and is constructed of oil drill bits.

Arman maintains studios in Paris and New York, but resides primarily in New York.