Ponti Art Gallery is interested in buying and selling works
of art by this artist.
John Armleder Biography
John M. Armleder, born in 1948 in Geneva, Switzerland, is a multifaceted artist whose work spans across performance art, painting, sculpture, criticism, and curation. His artistic journey is deeply rooted in his involvement with the Fluxus movement during the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which he created performance art pieces, installations, and collective art activities. These early endeavors were significantly influenced by John Cage, whose experimental approach to music and art left a lasting impact on Armleder's work. However, Armleder has consistently avoided aligning his artistic practice with any specific manifesto, preferring instead to explore a wide range of mediums and ideas.
Armleder's education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva laid the groundwork for his diverse artistic expressions. His career, spanning over five decades, has seen him engage with various aesthetic developments and movements, synthesizing them into a unique body of work that defies easy categorization. This productive friction, coupled with a sense of humor and conceptual provocation, has characterized his work from the early days with the Groupe Ecart in Switzerland to his later projects informed by Fluxus and his admiration for John Cage.
One of Armleder's most notable contributions to the art world is the co-founding of the Ecart Group in 1969, alongside Patrick Lucchini and Claude Rychner. This collective, which also operated as an independent publishing house, played a significant role in introducing artists such as Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol to the European art scene. The Ecart Group's activities extended beyond publishing to include the operation of Galerie Ecart, a performance venue that became a hub for avant-garde art in the 1970s and 1980s.
Throughout his career, Armleder has maintained a non-hierarchical and democratic understanding of art, often employing themes of appropriation, humor, and chance in his work. His aesthetic, marked by the absence of a characteristic style, spans painting, sculpture, design, performance, and installation. Armleder's work is loosely connected by these themes, drawing from the Fluxus movement's emphasis on blending life and art, and the appropriation of objects and quotes.
Armleder's "Furniture Sculpture" series, developed in 1979, brought him international recognition. These works, which juxtapose iconic pieces of design with paintings, reflect on the trivialization of artwork as an ornamental accessory. This series, along with his "Pour and Puddle Paintings," showcases Armleder's interest in the process of creation and the liberation from formal constraints, moral obligations, and conventions of taste and style.
Over the years, Armleder has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions around the world, including at prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCO) in Geneva. His work is held in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Staedel Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Armleder's approach to each exhibition as an unpredictable work in itself, drawing from legacies of movements like Dada and abstract expressionism, has made him a singular figure in postwar art. His work continues to challenge and expand the boundaries of contemporary art, making him one of the most representative Swiss artists of his generation.
John Armleder Quotes and Sales
of Works
Ponti Art Gallery selects and deals with paintings by the
artist. Upon request, we provide free estimates and
evaluations, communicate prices, quotations, and current
market values.
If you are interested in BUYING or SELLING works by the
artist, contact us immediately.
If you wish to sell or receive an evaluation of the
works:
Send us a frontal photo of the painting, one of the back,
and one of the signature. Also, indicate the dimensions of
the work. Inform us about the purchase origin of the work
and any kind of available documentation (purchase
receipts, certificates of authenticity, publications). One
of our operators will respond to you on the same day. We
guarantee maximum confidentiality and extreme
professionalism.
If you wish to purchase works by the painter: Contact us
and let us know your request. We will inform you about the
available works. We also offer the possibility to
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informed at the beginning of each month about the latest
acquisitions of the art gallery.
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