Born as Armand Fernandez in 1928 at Nice, the son of an antique dealer. His first lessons in painting were given him by his father. He took his Baccalaurat in philosophy and mathematics in 1946 and began to study painting at the Ecole Nationale
d'Art Decoratif, Nice. His pictures at this time were influenced by Surrealism. He had his first one-man exhibitions in London and Paris in 1956. In 1957 he travelled in Persia, Turkey and Afghanistan. In 1958 he dropped the ''d'' in
his
name,
inspired
by a printer's error. He started his monotypes using objects, his Allures. He showed in New York and Milan in 1961 and made his sliced and smashed objects. He also took up part-time residence in New York. In 1965 and
1966
he
was given
large
retrospective exhibitions in Krefeld, Lausanne, Paris, Venice and Brussels. In 1967 he initiated a collaboration between art and industry with the company Renault and represented France at ''Expo '67'', Montreal.
He
showed
at
the Venice
Biennale and at
documenta ''4'' in Kassel in 1968, and was given a teaching post at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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