20 may 2005 | VIA DI CITTà, 111 SIENA
20 may – 10 june 2005
Arman’s personal exhibition “Opere recenti” – catalogue with text by Achille Bonito Oliva
Born in Nice in 1928, Armand Fernandez chose to call himself Arman in the 1950s following a printing error made in a catalog for one of his first exhibitions held in Paris. After studying archeology and oriental art, he dedicated himself completely to painting, with works initially of a surrealist nature and then, after having seen the works of Pollock and Kurt Schwitters, increasingly oriented towards gestures and experiments with different materials. Between 1960 and 1962 Arman’s destiny was fulfilled, he met Pierre Restany, signed the Noveau Realisme manifesto and created his first Accumulations. Combustions and inclusions will follow, first in polyester then in cement (1970). Since 1975 the artist began to live between New York, where he has a studio, and Paris. During the Eighties and Nineties he continued, despite international critical and market success, to work with great dedication and coherence. Arman’s fetish/objects include shoes, bicycles, watches, furniture, but above all musical instruments and painter’s tools (brushes and tubes of paint). Arman through his art shows us “… the adventure of the object through all the fortunate and unfortunate cases of modern technology…” (Pierre Restany). Arman has held more than five hundred personal exhibitions and his works can be found in the main international museums. More than twenty recent “Accumulations” will be presented in the exhibition as well as some bronze sculptures.