"I maintain that the expression of detritus, of objects, has intrinsic value automatically, without any need for aesthetic arrangement which would obliterate them and render them similar to the colors of a palette. I maintain also the meaning of the global gesture without forgiveness or remorse."
Arman is one of the founders of the New Realists group with Yves Klein. He is also one of the first artists to use manufactured objects directly as a mark-making medium, as they represent to him the multiple and infinite extensions of the human hand, condemned to a continuous cycle of production, consumption, destruction. His art, inspired by the philosophy and aesthetics of Dadaism, also responds to Pop Art through its critique of consumption, waste, and mass production. Beyond painting, he practices a vast gamut of techniques, from lithography and sculpture to serigraphy or accumulation. Arman is mainly interested in the status of the object and its mutual relationship with modern societies, which hovers between between sacralization and destructive overconsumption.