focus on Arman’s burning poetics
At the Giorgio Cini Foundation, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, the “On fire” exhibition is held until 24 July 2022. The exhibition intends like fire – which has interested the human being from time immemorial used by six contemporary artists to both emphasize and the seeming and regenerating aspect of this element. Alberto Burri (Città di Castello, 1915 – Nice, 1995) creates Combustions of various materials: Woods and Irons in the Fifties, Plastics – transparent or red or black – in the early Sixties (later accompanied by a cellotex base). A Yves Klein (Nice, 1928 – Paris, 1962) Paintings de feu, performed since 1961 in the Gaz de France center of the Plaine-Saint-Denis, tools where they are made available to reach different degrees of power. Pure Jannis Kounellis (Piraeus, 1936 – Rome, 2017) uses the blowtorch which, by cutting the Fire daisy (1967) in the metal, somehow makes it “blossom”.
The pictorial trace through the combustion smoke can be seen in a monumental work in which Pier Paolo Calzolari (Bologna, 1943) made use of a fire eater. A picture of an equally large format of Claudio Parmiggiani (Luzzara, 1943) reveals with the ashes, in negative, the missing presences of books.
To comment on the life and work of Arman (Nice, 1928 – New York, 2005), precocious artist (from a very young age he sold his paintings, assisted by his father, who delighted in painting) we chat with his widow, Corice.
Multifaceted research engages Arman on several fronts at the same time: for him, the result is more important than action. After i cachet is dedicated to Accumulateannex Poubelle and all Colères. The formal structure of the object in the Anger it determines the aesthetics of the work and gives it a baroque or cubist character, depending on whether curved or straight lines are predominant. Influenced by Dadaism, Arman is close to the Lettrist, Fluxus, Gutai and Zero movements; although in constant exchange with artists (including the Americans Johns, Warhol, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein), he always carries out a personal research. As is known, Arman has had profitable exchanges with Yves Klein, as well, after creating a bet with him, some monochrome.
Combustion is of great interest to Arman; it is a different way of perceiving the work, as it controls its process. He burns the object up to a certain level, decide in which part, to what extent; the action is never random, but controlled. Corice tells us that the idea of burning furniture came to Arman in Amsterdam, where he went for an exhibition. He wanted a strong object as a presentation of the exhibit and as he walked around he saw a chair burn. It seemed to him a throne: hence the idea.
For Arman everything was important and everything was connected: profound connoisseur of African art, he collected objects worthy of a museum; he also studies Japanese. He lived for his work, and when he had an idea to develop, he didn’t stop until he brought it to fruition. The thing he loved most besides creating? Light. His favorite poets? Apollinaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud. He said that if he hadn’t become an artist, he would have been a writer. A characteristic trait of his character? Sharing, says Corice: for this reason he accepted an appointment as artist and professor in residence at UCLA in 1967.