Armando (artist)

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Armando is the name used by the Dutch artist Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd (born September 18, 1929).^[1] He was born in Amsterdam, and as he was a child, his family moved to Amersfoort. There he saw during the German occupation of the Netherlands, how the Nazis set up a "transition camp" for prisoners, who were to be sent to concentration camps. The suffering of the victims ans the cruelty of the Nazi camp guards, so near his home, influenced him for the rest of his life. After the liberation (1945), he studied the History of Art at the University of Amsterdam from 1950. His first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Le Canard, Amsterdam in 1954. At this time he also started to write poetry. He was influenced by the CoBrA art group, and produced abstract drawings produced with his left hand in the dark. he was also influenced by Dubuffet and Jean Fautrier producing thickly impastoed paintings.

In 1957 he was one of the founder-members of the Nederlandse Informele Groep (Informelen), with the painters Kees van Bohemen, Jan Henderikse, Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven and others.

By 1959 he had joined the Situationist International (SI) and attended their Third conference held in Munich April 17 - 20, 1959. With Anton Alberts, Constant and Har Oudejans he wrote First proclamation of the Dutch Section of the SI. However he was expelled from the SI in the Spring of 1960, though contributing to other Situationist activity like the Situationist Times.

He has also contributed to Podium, Gard Sivik, De Nieuwe Stijl, Barbarber.

He lives partly in Amsterdam, partly in Amersfoort and until 1989 also in Berlin.

A museum in Amersfoort , see website: http://www.armandomuseum.nl/ , that is devoted to the work of the painter, who spent his childhood in this city. On October 22, 2007 a large fire struck the museum. From the collection, thirteen paintings by Armando were burnt. Only one of them can possibly be restored (Source: Dutch TV News NOS, October 24, 2007). At the time of the fire there was also an exhibition with works of painters like Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruysdael, Albrecht Dürer, Hercules Seghers and Anselm Kiefer at the museum. These works of art have been lost. The financial damage is possibly about three million euros (US$ 4,000,000). (Source: Dutch TV News NOS, October 24, 2007) A final balance of the damage by the fire was made on Tuesday November 20th 2007. According to a Dutch newsarticle (http://www.nu.nl/news/1324371/10/rss/Armandomuseum_verliest_63_schilderijen.html), 63 paintings were lost, 8 were recovered. 6 of the recovered paintings are badly damaged, two are lightly damaged.