Arman

Arman’s work responds to the culture of mass production and consumerism with themes of accumulation, decay and recomposition. He became known for his use of discards, found objects and trash, in lieu of traditional painterly materials, often in quantities establishing visual rhythms of repetition, and invoking tensions of order and entropy.

Arman founded the influential New Realist (Nouveau Realiste) movement in 1960 with critic Pierre Restany, and artists Yves Klein, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques Villeglé. The New Realists sought to reflect an accurate contemporary reality, and rejected a romanticism which they associated with the abstract painting of their direct forebearers.