Two principles are fundamental to Arman’s work: first, artistic creation through destruction, and second, the principle of accumulation. For his group of works Accumulations, he collected large numbers of everyday objects, such as spoons, nanometers, teapots, light bulbs, or hairbrushes, which he arranged in Plexiglas boxes or cast in polyester resin. He was the first artist to receive a commission from the automobile manufacturer Renault. This collaboration resulted in a series of works made from car parts that Arman exhibited at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, which included Accumulation Renault. Behind a yellow sheet of acrylic glass, Arman fixed rubber gaskets, copper rings, plastic composite parts and cork elements in polyester resin. All of the parts came from a Renault 4. Arman belonged to the Nouveaux Réalistes, who were dedicated to the reality of urban consumer society and included everyday objects in their works.
Arman (1928–2005)
Accumulation Renault, 1969
Currently exhibited: Yes (1st floor)
Material: Acrylic glass, polyester resin, Renault seals
Size: 240 x 240 x 9 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_173
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Keywords:
Previous owner: Private collection
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie‘s, Paris, 2010
Solo exhibitions:
2008
‘Arman, janvier – février’, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy
2001
‘Arman, passage à l’acte’, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Nice, France
1991
‘Arman: A Retrospective’, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
1969/1970
‘Arman. Accumulations Renault’, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; Kunsthalle Berlin; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf; Moderna Museet, Stockholm
1968
Siège social de Renault, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Two principles are fundamental to Arman’s work: first, artistic creation through destruction, and second, the principle of accumulation. His most significant series of works include Colères (everyday objects smashed, reassembled, and mounted as part of an action), Coupes (mass-produced objects cut up), and Combustions (objects set on fire and their charred remains displayed, see untitled, 1969), as well as Accumulations. For this last group of works, he collected large numbers of everyday objects, such as spoons, nanometers, teapots, light bulbs, or hairbrushes, which he arranged in Plexiglas boxes or cast in polyester resin. He drew inspiration from the philosophy and aesthetics of the Dada movement and responded to the Pop Art which was emerging in the US with his own unique critique of this new world of consumerism, throwaway culture, and mass production. He was the first artist to receive a commission from the automobile manufacturer Renault. This collaboration resulted in a series of works made from car parts that Arman exhibited at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, which included Accumulation Renault. Behind a yellow sheet of acrylic glass, Arman fixed rubber gaskets, copper rings, plastic composite parts and cork elements in polyester resin. All of the parts came from a Renault 4. He is also well-known for the work he created in 1982 for a Paris suburb, Long-Term-Parking, for which he cast a 20-metre tower of 60 stacked cars in concrete.
He signed the manifesto of the Nouveau Réalisme (Engl. New Realism) movement in 1960 together with artists such as Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Pierre Restany, Jacques de la Villeglé, François Dufrêne, and Raymond Hains. The group adopted the term ‘realism’ from the artistic and literary movement of the 19th century whose goal was to capture banal everyday reality precisely in words and images. The Nouveaux Réalistes, in turn, focused to the new reality of urban consumer society. Their mode of representation was also new, not aiming to realistically depict society and culture but rather directly incorporating the objects of everyday life into their works.
