|
Arman
In 1959, he began displaying collections of objects in Plexiglas cases and creating installations of strewn garbage, which he called 'Poubelles', or 'trash bins.' He also welded identical objects together to create larger sculptural pieces. In 1961, along with Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villegle, art critic Pierre Restany, and others, Arman founded Nouveau Réalisme, a group interested in new approaches to the concept of 'reality'. Spending time in New York in the 1960s, Arman adopted destruction as a strategy for creating something new—slicing, burning, and smashing objects such as bronze statues and musical instruments to mount on canvas. Andy Warhol owned two of Arman's Poubelles, and Arman appears in the Warhol's 1964 film Dinner at Daley's. In the same year, Arman's first solo museum exhibition opened at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, followed by his first retrospective in Brussels two years later. Arman and his wife settled in New York permanently and gained American citizenship, Arman legally changing his name to Armand Pierre Arman. In New York, Arman continued to produce variations on his earlier art, and he also worked on a larger scale, creating monumental sculptures such as Long Term Parking (1982) and Hope for Peace (1976). Known for his strong views on politics and human rights, Arman served as the President of the New York chapter of Amnesty International for five years. These principles also led him to withdraw of his first retrospective in his hometown, Nice, which had hosted a convention during which a Neo-Nazi made Anti-Semitic remarks (the exhibition was later rescheduled for 2002). Arman died from cancer in 2005. |
|
|
|
|
