ARMAN
1928 - 2005

French artist, born Armand Pierre Fernandez on November 17, 1928 in Nice and died in New York on October 22, 2005, sculptor and visual artist who acquired the American nationality. 

His first encounter with art was in his father's antique store. He began to paint at the age of 10. He studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Nice, then at the Ecole du Louvre. He met Yves Klein and Claude Pascal at the Judo school they attended in Nice in 1947. At the end of 1957, Arman, who used to sign his works with his first name in homage to Van Gogh, decided to abandon the "d" in Armand and formalized his signature as an artist during an exhibition at Iris Clert in 1958.

 In 1960, along with Yves Klein, he became one of the founding members of the artists' collective: Les Nouveaux. The same year he had his first exhibition in New York using new materials such as polyester and Plexiglas. From then on he was fully committed to the intellectual and artistic movement of the 1960s. In the 80's and 90's, the range of his works and techniques widens. He declines and multiplies the various procedures of execution. His accumulations will make him famous. Between 1998 and 2001, the National Gallery of the Jeu de Paume presents a retrospective of the artist that was taken up all over the world, Germany, Portugal, Israel, Brazil, Mexico ...

Arman is an artist represented in all the international museums and has had more than 500 personal exhibitions.

​