Biography

ARMAN

(ARMAND-PIERRE FERNANDEZ SO CALLED )

ARMAN was born in Nice on 17 November1928.There he studied in the School of Decorative Arts and later entered the famous "Ecole du Louvre" in Paris to study History of Art.
He got well-acquainted with Yves Klein.
As early as 1953 , he was interested in abstract art . He earned his first wages in 1953 thanks to paper creations using printing inked stamping that he presented at his first personal exhibition in 1956 at the "Galerie du Haut Pavé".
In 1959 he achieved his first "Accumulations" of standard articles ( coffeepots , enameled pitchers , old dentures …) put in boxes or plexiglass (or glass) display cabinets , as well as his first "Dustbins" (plexiglass vats full of rubbish ).
He created the " Group of New Surrealists" with Yves Klein.
In 1961, he studied "Destruction of things" ; "Cuttings" (he cut slices of statues , violins , coffee mills…) ; "Angers" (he streaded on and ran over violins , saxophones , alarm clocks , furniture…that he presented as fragmented paintings).
From 1962 on , he has been deviding his time between Nice and New York where he participated in an exhibition about the "Art of assembling" at the MOMA.
In 1963 , he experimented the stage of "Combustion" (burnt violins and armchairs ).
In 1967 , he started a partnership with the French car company "Régie Renault" (the « Renault Accumulations » of car pieces ).
Afterwards, his exhibitions linked together in France (Paris , Nice…) but also abroad (Germany , Italy , the US , Japan , Korea …).
In the same time , he was asked to achieve different monumental works intended for the Paris Elysées Palace and Saint- Lazare station , the Lincoln Center in New York , Dallas , Beyrouth…
Today his works are being part of first-rate collections and museums worldwide.