Arman was born Fernandez Armand in Nice, France. He studied painting at the École Nationale d'Art Décoratif, Nice and at the École du Louvre in Paris. A founding member of the 1960 Nouveaux Réalisme group, Arman used everyday objects collected together in large quantities in his art. From 1961, New York was a second home to the artist, and he completed many large scale public sculptures on the theme of the poetics of waste, excess and mass production there.