HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARMAN!

Just today, Tuesday 17 November 2020, Fernandez Arman would have turned 92, who died on 22 October 2005 in New York, with an amazing career to his credit that saw him exhibit in Chicago, Lausanne, Venice, Paris, Brussels and many other capitals of art in the world. His first personal exhibition was in New York in 1961, at the Cordier-Warren Gallery where he presented the artworks Coupes (objects cut or sawn) and Colères (objects broken or violently damaged).

Arman, exhibitions and fame

Thanks to his determination, the step was short towards great museums such as the M.O.M.A where he participated, together with 144 other artists, in the exhibition The Art of Assemblage. Arman exhibited, among others, the artwork Boom! Boom! a composition of plastic water pistols created with the desire to analyze American culture and its use of firearms.

Arman, Accumulations

In 1980 he began his work on Bronze which led to the creation of the first bronze editions of accumulated or cut objects. Hence the Accumulative Tapestry exhibition, at the Bonnier gallery in Geneva, and subsequently numerous solo exhibitions in Munich, Geneva, Florence, Paris (F.I.A.C.), Tokyo and Nice. The Series that most characterized Arman's art: Accumulations. Symbol of Nouveau Réalisme, these works are the result of real accumulations of recycled objects of common use such as shoes, watches and tubes of tempera.

Arman, Broken Violins

Accumulations are observable in three categories: Accumulations of real objects, Accumulations in Plexiglas and Accumulations in Box. But the first is the most popular category of works in the world. This includes Arman's most loved and studied subjects: violins. Arman dissected them and then reassembled them in different shapes covered with a golden patina capable of making them extremely elegant.

Arman's operation on objects gave them a new life capable of transforming them into refined works of art. In view of the final achievement, the artist went so far as to burn the musical instruments. An action that of fire, rich in meanings in the history of art; devastating as if to purify the primary object in order to give it a new existence. The desecration of the old that gives life to the new shows us the artist's willingness to personally intervene on the end of the objects.

In fact, Arman's phrase is famous: “I believe that in destroying there is the will to stop time”.

Arman did what all the greatest artists have done: he found a way to survive. Survival is in fact something that few of us have had and that very few will have and is given by two elements: the memory, which is configured in the short space / time, and the legacy, which, instead, takes shape in the large space / time. Arman will be remembered for a long time thanks to the information told by the oldest to the youngest, and by the old media to the new ones. But the real thing that will make Arman survive for a period of time that we can define as eternal is his works.

On his grave stands the phrase "Enfin seul!" (finally alone). It is in fact in the solitude of his studio that Arman loved to give life to all his works; daughters of an undisturbed creation, they are the eternal legacy of a brilliant artist.

If you are interested in learning more about Arman's works, come and discover them on our website.