ABOUT

Arman (1928–2005) was a French-born artist and a major figure of Nouveau Réalisme, whose practice radically transformed the role of everyday objects in postwar art. Working across sculpture, assemblage, painting and printmaking, he became particularly known for his Accumulations: compositions created through the repetition and multiplication of manufactured and found objects.

Born in Nice, Arman developed an early fascination with objects through his father’s antique shop. After studying at the École nationale des arts décoratifs in Nice and the École du Louvre in Paris, he became closely associated with the emerging Nouveau Réalisme movement alongside artists including Yves Klein. Influenced by Dada and its questioning of the traditional art object, Arman made the objects of modern consumer society central to his artistic vocabulary.

Throughout his career, he explored accumulation, repetition, fragmentation and destruction as ways of transforming familiar objects. In addition to his Accumulations, he developed series such as the Coupes, in which objects were cut apart, and the Colères, created through acts of destruction, as well as works involving burned objects and monumental assemblages.

After settling in the United States in the 1960s, Arman developed an international career and expanded his practice into increasingly ambitious public sculptures and installations. His work helped redefine the relationship between art, objects and consumer culture, establishing a dialogue between the legacy of Dada, Nouveau Réalisme and the emergence of Pop Art. Today, his works are held in major museum collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate and the Centre Pompidou.