Armando

1929 Born in Amsterdam on September 18th. (NL)

1935-1950 Lives in Amersfoort, nearby the terrain where in 1941 the “Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort” (Amersfoort concentration camp) is established.

1945-1949 Plays as first violinist in various (Romany) orchestras. Gives performances during several liberation festivals.

1949 Starts making drawings, primarily in the woods close to Amersfoort. 

1950-1957 Moves to Amsterdam, begins studying history of arts, writes his first poems, and starts to paint. In 1954 Armando has his first individual exhibition of drawings in the avant-garde gallery Le Canard in Amsterdam and debuts with his poetry in the literature periodical Podium. Three years later he has an individual exhibition of his “Peintures Criminelles”.

1958-1960 Founds, together with Kees van Bohemen, Henk Peeters, Jan Hendrikse, and Jan Schoonhoven, the Dutch Informal Group. Participates in exhibitions of the Informals in the Netherlands and abroad.Starts working at the Dutch newsmagazine Haagse Post.

1967-1973 Continues to draw after a break. Makes his first sculpture of stone, “De Geheime Trap” (The Secret Staircase), which is placed in the Dutch district Uithoorn. 

1971-1978 Merges his drawings with historic pictures. The Dutch television airs the first episodes of “Herenleed”, revealing absurd sketches together with Cherry Duyns and Johny van Doorn. Herenleed evolves into a theatre, lasting for almost 25 years. With Hans Verhagen he produces a long documentary for television: “Geschiedenis van een Plek” (History of a Location). He starts painting large canvases in the series Fahne, Preussisch and Selbst. Armando receives the “Herman Gorter prize” for his poetry series “Het Gevecht” (The Struggle). 

1979 Receives a stipend that allows him to work in West Berlin for a year. From this moment on, Armando lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin alternately.

1982 Armando’s work is exhibited at the Documenta in Kassel.

1984 Exhibitions at the 41st Venice Biennale as well as the Biennale in Sydney. 

1984 Overview exhibition with Armando’s “Fahne”paintings in the Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin (DE)

1985-1988 Starts with the series Der Baum and Gestalt. He writes a column, with the title “Armando uit Berlijn” (Armando from Berlin), in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. Collections of these essays are awarded with several literature prizes, among which the Bordewijk prize, the Multatuliprize, and the Gouden Ganzenveer. Armando first bronze sculpture Fahne, placed in the Amsterdam concert hall, marks the beginning of an imposing sculptural oevre.

1994 He continues playing the violin. After giving performances with the Koninklijk Nederlands Zigeunerorkest of Tata Mirando, Armando founds his own orchestra: The Armando Quartet. In

1995, Armando is awarded with an Edison for his CD Armando, The Violinist. He will stop to performing music in 2003.

1996 Is assigned a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Receives the Jerg-Ratgeb-Preis of the HAP Grieshaber Stiftung Reutlingen.

1997 Armando exhibits at the Shigeru Yokota gallery in Tokyo.

1998 The Armando Museum is opened in the Elleboogkerk in town of Amersfoort.

2002 Kunsverein KunstHaus, Potsdam Armando exhibition in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

2001-2002 After years of working with only tints of black and white, colour returns to the works of Armando. 

Both the Kupferstichbabinett in Berlin and the Neues Museum in Nürnberg organize large overview exhibitions of Armando’s work in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

2006 Armando is awarded a membership as Knight in the Order of de Nederlandse Leeuw. 

The Cobra Museum in Amstelveen opens the exhibition ‘Armando 1925-2005’, in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

Furthermore, two 0-exhibtions in Museum Kunst Palast Düsseldorf, and in Musée d’Art Moderne Saint- Etienne featured works of Armando.

2007 A large fire destroys the Armando Museum in the Elleboogkerk. The museum is thereafter located in the Zonnehof also in Amersfoort.

2008 Exhibtion “Armando Potsdammer Geschichten”, in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

2008 Zero an exhibition in Sperone Westwater Gallery, New york

2009 In honour of Armando’s 80th birthday, Zonnehof Museum opens the major overview exhibition “Melancholie van het Scheppen” (Melancholy of Creation). Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands personally hands Armando a Medal of Honour for Arts and Sciences. 

2010 Solo exhibitions in Art Karlsruhein and in the Kurt Tucholsky Literaturmuseum, at Schloss Rheinsberg, in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

Armando starts making artworks with ceramics, resulting in the exhibtion “Het ontembare vuur” in Princessehof, Leeuwarden.

2011 Armando is awarded the prestigious “VSB Poëzie Prijs” for his poetry. The exhibition of the 1984 Venetian biennale is reconstructed in the Zonnehof, Amersfoort. Stedelijk Museum Schiedam opens exhibition “Nul = 0”, featuring artworks of Armando.

2012 Mayor Gallery London “Armando 47 Bolts” (UK)

2013 March-June the exhibition “Armando vs Armando” Cobra Museum Amstelveen, in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

2013 Solo exhibition by Piet Boon Oostzaan

2013-2014 “Zero na America do sul”                                                 

A Zero exhibition traveling through Brazil, exhibiting Armando’s “Bandenwand” and a work in the series of “bouten".

01-08-2013 to 03-11-2013 Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba,

05-12-2013 to 02-03 2014 Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre,

03-04-2014 to 15-06-2014 Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo 

21-2-2014 the Museum Oud Amelisweerd (MOA) is opened by princes Beatrix. Together with Armando, she revealed the statue “Der Vogel,” which is placed on the museum’s roof. The title of the opening exhibition was “Armando in het woud”.

25-9-2014 to 21-1-2015 Three Zero works of Armando are exhibited at the “Zero Count Down to Tomorrow “, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC (USA)

2014 Solo, “die Mecklenburgische Reise”, with a speech by Cherry Duyns at Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

17-3-2015 to 30-8-2015 “Armando, Brokstukken / Bruchsück” (“Debris”). As part the commemorations in 2015, Chabot Museum, Rotterdam (NL)

21-3-2015 to 8-6-2015 “Zero, die Internationale Kunstbewegung der 50 er & 60 er Jahre”, in Museum Martin –Gropius- Bau Berlin (D)

4-2-15 to 26-5-15 Museum Jan van der Togt “Armando in Amstelveen”, Amstelveen (NL)

11-4-2015 to 27-9-2015 Natura Artis Magistra-Armando, Sjoerd Buisman, Charles Donker”, MOA Bunnik (NL)

2015 Armando’s Zero diptych “12 Zwarte bouten op wit” (“12 Black bolts on white”) was part of the exhibition “Ik hou van Holland, Nederlandse Kunst na 1945” (“I love Holland, Dutch Art after 1945”) in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam (NL)

27-6-15 Armando's sculpture "der Bogen" was revealed in the city centre of Amstelveen (NL); accompanied by a small presentation of the sculpture's inception in the Cobra Museum, Amstelveen (NL).

4-6-15 to 8-11-15 “Zero: Let Us Explore the Stars”, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (NL).

2016 “Armando Im Lauf der Zeit”, Galerie Geiger, Konstanz (D)

2016 “Armando Bruchstücke / Brokstukken”, Potsdam Museum Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam (D)

2016 “Armando Aktuelle Arbeiten”, Kunstverein Kunst-Haus, Potsdam (D), in collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

2016 Armando solo on the PAN by Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn.

2016 “Die Potsdammer Gruppe”, in Huis Schuylenburch, Den Haag a collaboration with Galerie Helga Hofman, Alphen aan Den Rijn. 

2016 “Stilleven Stephan Vanfleteren & Armando” MOA Bunnik (NL)

2016 TEFAF, Stand Gallery Hidde van Seggelen, Maastricht (NL)

2016 “Armando, Am Rand Erscheinungen”, Hölderlin-Gesellschaft  Tübingen (D)

2017 Armando (solo) “25 Jahre Freundschaft” by Gallerie Helga Hofman Alphen aan Den Rijn, With a speech by Miente Boelaard Stheemann and a concert by the Laurens Moreno Ensemble.

23-3-2017 – 10-9-2017 “Das Tier Armando” Darwin Sinke & Van Tongeren, MOA Bunnik (NL)

4-4-2017 “Thuis in het Chabot Museum”, Chabot Museum shows the recent donation of Armando’s private collection with drawings of colleague artists together with works of Armando in Huis Schuylenburch, Den Haag (NL)

23-9-2017 to 18-3-2018 “Made in China, Armando & masterpieces from the Qing dynasty”, Moa Bunnik (NL).

2017 Armando and top accordionist Oleg Lysenko, perform together in various Theaters with their program,” I heard they were being listened to” (Armando then reads from his own work). 

1-3-2018 Transfer of the entire Armando collection. Earlier it was decided by Armando and the Armando Foundation to end the loan of the Armando collection to Museum Oud Amelisweerd. Moa continues under the name, “A house of art in Nature”. 

2018 Armando/solo at Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou (China),“Between Abstraction & Reality”. 

2018 Zonnehof via Museum Flehite Amersfoort, “Armando to Mondriaan to Wolter”. 

2018 Opening sculpture garden, design Piet Oudolf at The Singer Museum Laren. Includes Armando’s statue Torso, date 2005, size 200x82x68 cm. Unfortunately, during their current exhibition “Flower Power”, MOA went on 16-8-2018 out of business.1-7-2018 Armando passed away in his studio house Potsdam.

Works of Armando are part of many prominent collections of both international museums and private collectors. 

After Armando’s death, the Armando Foundation inherits the entire collection and is committed to keep Armando’s ideas accessible to a wide audience.