Negen zwarte bouten op wit 3/61

Nine black iron bolts are mounted in a horizontal line, evenly distributed, on a vertical, rectangular, white sheet of fiberboard. This relief is characteristic of the work created by Dutch artist Armando in this early period. Together with Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven and Jan Henderikse, he was part of the Dutch Nul-group (1960–1965). This group, which may be seen as a continuation of the informal art of the 1950s and developed within the international context of groups such as Zero (Germany) and Nouveau Réalisme (France), concentrated on monochrome, repetition, serial production and direct use of material. Armando explained the group’s way of thinking in 1963 in the avant-garde magazine ‘Gard Sivik’: ‘For the first time in the history of art, the artist is not commenting upon reality. He does not interpret. He accepts reality’. Armando’s anonymous, coolly detached works –off which the museum has two other pieces in the collection - differ greatly from his later work, which is almost expressionist in style and often suggests an emotionally charged significance.