English
Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Arman Pierre Fernandez was born in Nice in 1928 and died in New York in 2005. The son of a Spanish antiques dealer, he is a shining light in the contemporary art world and the Centre Georges Pompidou will feature his work in a retrospective exhibit until January 10, 2011.
Arman began painting as a child at his father’s urging, and later studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice. In 1947 he met the painters Yves Klein and Claude Pascal, who founded the artistic group “Triangle”, influenced by Eastern philosophy of Zen Buddhism, astrology and the work of Van Gogh. Since that time, he signed his works with only one name, like Van Gogh, and Zorro, he was just Arman.
In 1949 he moved to study archeology at the École du Louvre in Paris. During this period his work was influenced by Surrealism. Years later, influenced by Kurt Schwitters and Picasso, he shifted from painting to print-making.
In the late fifties, industrial growth led to increases in consumption and waste of modern society, and theartist was charged with reflecting on this reality artist. Arman joined the rising criticism of the industrialization process of the 60´s and transformed his art.
His reinterpretation of Duchamp´s ready-made, which transformed the most common object into a work of art, is what integrates the Nouveaux Realistes, whose work can be seen as a direct retort to abstract expressionism and informalism. Following the path opened by Rauschenberg and pop artists, he became an important voice in the modern era, through the intervention of objects that occupy and define it: the city, machine, factory, consumerism and mass media.
The Nouveaux Realistes are considered the European counterpart of Pop-Art; however, unlike in Pop art there is an underlying commitment to society.
Arman worked with objects such as accumulated waste and employed burning, crushing, cutting and sawing as techniques. By making everyday objects into art. He denounced consumerism, war, violence and marginalization of thousands of men condemned to live in the trash.
Today Paris pays homage in this exhibition, by displaying his works. The retrospective covers his whole of his career, from his beginnings as a painter until his more directly critica and socially oriented sculptural interventions.
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Nancy Guzman
Examine the work of this unusual artist when you stay in apartments in Paris by visiting the Pompidou.
