"As a witness to my society, I've always been very involved in the cycle of production, consumption and destruction".
Arman is most associated with the Nouveau Réaliste movement, which emerged in 1960 as France's response to the Pop Art trend sweeping Europe and the United States. Arman first emerged as a lyrical abstract painter, but soon rejected this style and began to make sculpture inspired by the concept of the readymade. Arman's most notable works are concerned with the consequences of mass production: his Accumulations often reflect the sameness of modern objects; his Poubelles, or "dustbins", consider the wastefulness that results from discarding these objects; and his Coleres, or "rages", express an almost irrational rage at the objects that, in the modern age, threaten to dominate everyday life.
At his best, Arman expressed a powerful and frightening rejection of modernization and mass consumer culture. Later, he developed an aesthetic based on the act of destruction, his pieces commemorating the obliteration of objects in various ways.
Watch a film dedicated to Arman and Éliane Radigue.
