Arman, artist’s name of Armand Fernandez, was born in Nice in 1928. After studying decorative arts and attending the Ecole du Louvre, he got close to the poet Claude Pascal and to Yves Klein, linked by the love for oriental philosophies and judo.

Arman lived the turmoil of the post WWII which bore abstract and informal art: to contrast these movements he imposed a newer realism which characterises his art.
To oppose expressionism his new realism stands on the object as a subject matter of creation: he brings the ready made in art to find a real objectivity and an inexpressiveness which had been submerged and erased by the abstract expressionism.

During the 80s he employed objects as violins, annihilating their function to realise bronze sculpture: thus they are not industrial objects but a copies of an artwork.