About the artist
His first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie Le Canard, Amsterdam, in 1954. In this period he also started to write poetry. His paintings and drawings were influenced by the CoBrA art group and Debuffet.
In 1958 he was one of the founders of the Nederlandse Informele Groep, which merged into the Nederlandse Zero-movement in 1960. The members of the Nul group brought to their work an entirely new, astonishing vision of familiar things.
The artist Armando at work at his studio
From 1979 he lived alternately in Amstelveen and Berlin for over 25 years, where he worked until 1989 in the old studio of the Nazi sculptor Arno Breker. From that time on he lived in Amstelveen, but he had plans to settle in Amersfoort, the city of 'his' museum, the Armando Museum.
Armando and his sculptures and paintings, in the Elleboogkerk in Amersfoort, where the Armando Museum was established in 1998
On October 22, 2007, this museum was completely destroyed by a raging fire, whereby almost the entire collection and part of the documentation archive were lost. Part of the rescued collection was transferred to the new Museum Oud Amelisweerd (MOA) in Bunnik. The first exhibition of this collection in Oud-Amelisweerd was opened on 21 March 2014 by Princess Beatrix.
Armando's collection was opened on 21 March 2014 by Princess Beatrix
His legacy
In 2013 his collection of poems Stemmen was published. In November 2015, Uitgeverij Koppernik published 21 new poems under the title Why. Since 2014 the Armando Collection found a new home in the Museum Oud Amelisweert near Bunnik (NLD).
Armando exhibition in Museum Voorlinden, 2019
Armando died on July 1, 2018 in the German city of Potsdam.