Arty Farty Friday ~ Arman

The artist known as "Arman" was Armand Pierre Fernandez , born in Nice, France on 17 November 1928. He retained as his signature a printer's spelling error. He was son of an antique dealer/musician. After showing artistic talent in childhood he studied art in Nice and Paris, took European road trips with friends, during which experiences he absorbed some Eastern philosophy, felt inspired by early Chinese art as well as the martial art of judo. He even worked as an instructor at a judo school in Spain for a while. He served two years as an orderly in the French military in Indochina.

Inspired by collages of Kurt Schwitters, Arman’s first solo show, in Paris in 1954, exhibited his “Cachets,” assemblages and accumulations of stamps and fabric. In 1960 he and other artists signed the manifesto of the "New Realism" movement. New Realism aimed for "new, sensitive, perceptive approaches to the real.” Arman began examining the artistic possibilities of everyday objects, giving them an importance never seen before - in effect, transforming garbage or abandoned items into art - yet another, more complex, interpretation of Pop-art.

His style developed gradually, incorporating “colères,” (manmade objects smashed and reassembled, mounted on wood panels); “coupes” (slicing mass produced objects); and “combustions”: objects set ablaze, charred remains exhibited, aiming to represent acts of artistic creation through destruction.

After spending time in New York, inspired by the energy of the city, he made a home there, became a US citizen in 1973, with the official name Armand P. Arman.

More, and more ambitious, projects followed, including accumulations of tools, clocks and costume jewellery. Hundreds of pieces welded together into sculpted forms, some in miniature, some huge. The shapes of musical instruments inspired him too, to create accumulations and “coupes” of cellos, violins, and trombones.

Arman was the first contemporary artist to receive commissions from the Renault car company; a collaboration resulting in a series of works using car parts which Arman exhibited at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan.

 Long-Term Parking

 Hope for Peace

Arman created some monumental public sculptures. His “Long-Term Parking,” (1982) in a Parisian suburb, for instance: a 50-foot-high column of concrete encasing dozens of cars. Also, his “Hope for Peace”, commissioned in 1995 by the then Lebanese Prime Minister. It stands alongside the Lebanese Army Headquarters in Beirut and towers even higher than “Long-Term Parking”. “Hope For Peace” encases armored vehicles and tanks, whose barrels poke out through the concrete, pointing upward.

Later, Arman returned to painting. In 1991 he created a series of “robot-portraits” of classical composers, large-scale works evoking their subjects via assemblages of sheet music and instruments.

Arman was passionately engaged with human rights issues throughout his life. He served for five years as President of the New York Chapter of Artists for Amnesty International. In 1990, in his hometown of Nice, Arman made a major statement against religious prejudice. Weeks before the scheduled opening of an exhibition of his work, the city of Nice had hosted the convention of the Front National, a right-wing French political party whose guest of honor had been a German Neo-Nazi. The Mayor of Nice honored the F.N. and had made anti-Semitic remarks. In protest, staying true to his convictions, Arman cancelled his planned retrospective exhibition. It was not until 2002 that his work was exhibited in the city of his birth.

Friends had advised Arman not to mix politics with art. He responded, “If you are not willing to mix with politics sometimes, politics may one day mix with you—whether you want it or not.”
Arman died in 2005, he was 77 years old.

"I specialize very much in… everything,” the French-born American artist Arman told an interviewer in 1968. “I have never been — how do you say it? A dilettante.”

Main source: Arman's Website

A few examples of his work - there are dozens more available - see them by typing "Arman" into Google Image, or visit his website.

 Do ra mi fa so

 Avalanche (on campus of Tel Aviv University)

ASTROLOGY

Data from Astrodienst.

A well spread-out chart for a change! First thing grabbing my attention is a Grand Trine linking
Venus/Jupiter/Neptune in early degrees of Earth signs Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo. That's an artistic signature for Arman if ever I saw one! Venus (the arts), Neptune (creativity, imagination) and Jupiter (lots of everything - accumulations). If time of birth is near accurate, Jupiter was on the ascendant too- a powerful position in the natal chart!

Rather oddly, there's no planet in an Air sign - his Earthiness led his enthusiasm for practicality in using objects found or thrown away in his art. The skills needed to produce some of his work asked for more than the ability to wield a paintbrush. Craftsmanship and the more mundane practical abilities as well as creative vision, were a necessary accessory for success in his type of artwork.

Natal Sun in Scorpio sextile Moon in Capricorn:

From HERE The combination of Scorpio Sun sign and Capricorn Moon sign shows honor, integrity and authority as very important... not concerned with popularity as long as remaining true to high principles and honesty. This combination blends the emotional force, determination, and will power of Scorpio, with the ambition, shrewdness, realism, and practicability of Capricorn....

That fits Arman's obvious humanism and social conscience. I love that quote of his “If you are not willing to mix with politics sometimes, politics may one day mix with you—whether you want it or not.”