Arman - Vicky David Gallery

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3. BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS
Armand Pierre Fernandez is born in Nice on 17 November 1928. His father Antonio Francesco Fernandez,
Spanish by origin, is the owner of a furniture shop. The family lives in the Rue Maréchal Joffre in Nice,
and Armand spends his childhood in the composite universe of the second-hand shop, from whence would
come his taste for collecting. His father, an amateur painter, teaches him the techniques of oil painting
and takes him to the universal exhibitions of the day: the young boy is fascinated by the machines cut down
the middle to reveal their inner workings. He quickly reveals himself to be artistically gifted and persuades
his parents to allow him to study at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice. Although a brilliant
student, he leaves the school in 1949, exasperated by its conservatism.
1947-1950
Armand meets Yves Klein and Claude Pascal at the judo school run by the Nice police. Under Klein’s
influence, the three interest themselves in esoteric teachings and find themselves fascinated by the pure
colours and violent technique of Vincent Van Gogh. Out of admiration for the latter, Yves and Armand decide
to use only their first names in signing their work. In 1948, Armand discovers the leading figures in
Dada and Surrealism, who will influence his work as a painter. In 1949, he moves to Paris to enrol at the
École du Louvre. His friendship with Klein and Pascal does not suffer: together they form the Triangle
group.
1951-1959
Armand is given an entrée into Parisian artistic circles by Yves Klein and his mother Marie Raymond, who
introduces him to Anna Staritsky, who points him towards non-figurative painting. He discovers the work
of Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, a Dutch typographer (d. 1945) who had used mechanical repetition in
word-based typographical compositions. In Paris he is impressed by the paintings of Jackson Pollock’s that
he sees at Studio Facchetti, which will influence both the spirit and the composition of his own work.
On 17 February 1953, he marries Éliane Radigue; he works as a salesman in his father’s shop. His painting
becomes abstract, showing the influence of Poliakoff and Nicolas de Staël. In Paris in spring 1954 he
discovers Kurt Schwitters, being strongly influenced by his rubbish and fragments of paper, whose abstract
play of forms and colours breaks with the post-Cubist order. Back in Nice, he takes the rubber stamps
routinely used in his father’s business and uses them in his own work as an artist, more interested in the
formal properties of the stamp than its content. Arman shows his Cachets in Paris in 1956 and the press
speaks of Neo-Dada influence, highlighting their formal character. On the occasion of the artist’s first
one-person show (Galerie La Roue, Paris, June 1957), Pierre Restany, whom Arman is beginning to
associate with on a regular basis, hails the development of this “viscerally painterly” young man. In 1957
a printer’s error sees his name on a poster curtailed to “Arman,” and he decides to exploit this accident and
abandon the final “d” in his forename – and his artistic signature. Yves Klein’s exhibition “Le Vide” opens
at Iris Clert’s on 28 April1958. In May, the same gallery shows recent painting by Arman under the title
“Les Olympiens.” Through his wife, Arman meets those involved in Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM)
run by musician and electrical engineer Pierre Schaeffer, who has just invented ways of slowing down or
stretching out sound, calling the result “Allures d’objets en musique” (the gait of objects in music). Arman
borrows the name from him, and embarks on his Allures d’objets (Gait of Objects works), which will lead
on to the first Colères (Rages) and Accumulations. In 1959, hen makes his first Poubelles (Garbage Cans)
and meets Martial Raysse.
1960-1962
On 16 April 1959, the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan opens an exhibition of work by Yves Klein, Jacques
Villeglé, Jean Tinguely, Raymond Hains and François Dufrêne, together with Allures-Colères by Arman.
In his introduction to the catalogue, Restany makes use of the phrase “New Realists” for the first time.
This essay represents the first manifesto of the future movement, declaring the emergence of a new way
of looking at urban, industrial society, its products and its refuse. In June 1959, Alfred Schmela in
Dusseldorf presents Arman’s “Poubelles et Accumulations” which gains a Europe-wide response. For
the occasion, Arman writes for the Zero group the text “Réalisme des accumulations,” in which he explains
that the object has a value in itself, and that accumulation allows it to be recontextualised with itself. In
October 1960, Iris Clert presents “Le Plein,” or “Full Up,” Arman’s response to Klein’s “Vide.” The invitation
to the opening takes the form of a sardine tin filled with rubbish, containing a short text by Pierre Restany,
who claims that this event brings to New Realism “its properly architectonic dimension.” Arman begins
the series of Portraits-robots with portraits of Yves Klein and Iris Clert, gathering some of their personal