Armando Dutch, 1929-2018

Armando (1929-2018) was a painter, sculptor, draftsman, poet and writer. After World War II he took part in the CoBrA movement. In 1960 he and Jan Schoonhoven, Jan Henderikse, herman de vries and Henk Peters started the Nul-movement. A movement in which the artists propagated an "anti-painterly idea". The Nul art is cool and businesslike. The emerging consumer-society was a major source of inspiration for these artists.

In this period Armando made many wall-reliefs and installations, for instance his wall-piece with only car tires. Armando often used bolts, which he applied to canvasses. During the time that Armando is in the Nul group, he drew less. The drawings he made seem almost mechanically and without the visible hand of the artist. In the late sixties, the drawings gradually became more personal. It is not until the mid-seventies that Armando started painting again.

His childhood in Amersfoort, close to Camp Amersfoort, characterizes much of his work. The horrors of Camp Amersfoort in the Second World War bring him his lifelong theme: "war". His work is about "humans, and what they are capable of, and of it's tragedy." Many works from the fifties are fully dedicated to World War II.