Armand Fernandez, better known by the name Arman, was born on November 17, 1928, in Nice and died in New York on October 22, 2005. A French-American artist, painter, sculptor, and also a visual artist, his «accumulations» brought him fame.

He was one of the first to use manufactured objects as pictorial material. According to him, this represented the multiple and infinite extensions of the human hand, which undergo a continuous cycle of production, consumption, and destruction.

In late 1957, Arman, who always signed his works with his first name in homage to the illustrious artist Van Gogh, decided to drop the «d» from Armand and made his artist signature official in 1958, for an exhibition organized at Iris Clert's gallery.

In 1989, he was awarded the Legion of Honour by President François Mitterrand.