Avril, Armand

France, 1926

Armand Avril owes his love for art to his father, a painter and collector of African art who died in a concentration camp. After working as a shepherd and construction painter, Avril began drawing and painting figurative works while still young. In 1960, he moved to Africa, where he met Louis Pons, an artist and assembler of objects. These experiences steered him progressively towards a new means of expression: assemblages and montages of objects in bas-relief, made mainly from scraps and salvaged parts: bottle caps, clothespins, parts from children’s toys, croquet balls, glue, nails and empty tin cans. He works essentially with waste and discarded objects.