Skip to main content
Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Create an account to add artworks to your personal collections.

Enter your email address below to recieve an email to reset your password.

An email has been sent to your inbox to reset your password.

image alt

Arman

Poubelle (Trash Can), from Edition MAT

1964

image alt
1 / 1

French-born artist Arman was part of the artistic movement Nouveau Réalisme, whose characteristic collages, assemblages, reliefs, and found and altered objects, often based on everyday urban materials, formed a new form of postwar realism. Arman created his first poubelles, or trash cans, in the early 1960s by harvesting garbage from public dumpsters. For this work he took refuse from a trash can located at the Galerie Der Spiegel in Cologne and stuffed it into an acrylic container, letting the force of gravity largely determine the composition. By extracting and preserving a moment in the lifecycle of things, Arman, in the spirit of Duchamp, elevates the found object to the status of an autonomous art object, yet concurrently extends the instant indefinitely through a process of gradual decay, thereby defying the notion of a work of art as fixed and lasting. [Permanent collection label, 2016]

  • Artist Arman (American, b. France, 1928–2005)
  • Title Poubelle (Trash Can), from Edition MAT
  • Date 1964
  • Medium Trash in Plexiglas box on painted wood, 100/100
  • Edition description 100/100
  • Dimensions unframed | 28 1/8 x 20 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.
  • Credit line University purchase with funds from Aurelia Gerhard Schlapp, by exchange, 2013
  • Copyright © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
  • Object number WU 2013.0005.0001

Multiplied: Edition MAT and the Transformable Work of Art, 1959–1965
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 02/07/2020 - 01/03/2021
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art (Charlotte, North Carolina), 05/22/2020 - 09/13/2020

Moving Parts: Time and Motion in Contemporary Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/09/2014 - 08/31/2014

Multiplied: Edition MAT and the Transformable Work of Art, 1959–1965 2020

4/11/2013 (ACC Approved)
Galerie Der Spiegel (Cologne, Germany)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to Consumerism and Commodity Culture page
2003_0014.tif
Theme

Consumerism and Commodity Culture

go to Sustainability and Environment page
2003_0016.tif
Theme

Sustainability and Environment

go to Moving Parts: Time and Motion in Contemporary Art page
no image
Exhibitions

Moving Parts: Time and Motion in Contemporary Art

May 09, 2014 - August 31, 2014
go to Multiplied: Edition MAT and the Transformable Work of Art, 1959–1965 page
View of Ebsworth Gallery
Exhibitions

Multiplied: Edition MAT and the Transformable Work of Art, 1959–1965

February 07, 2020 - January 03, 2021

Image Reproduction Request Form

To request image materials and/or permission to reproduce a work of art from the Museum's collection, please complete and submit the form below. The information you provide here will enable us to process your request and assess the appropriate images, permissions, and any applicable fees. 

Typically, image requests that do not require new photography can be completed within three weeks. Whenever possible, rush orders may be accommodated, although additional fees may apply.

If you have questions, please contact Kristin Good, associate registrar, at kristin.good@wustl.edu.

Checking this box constitutes a legal signature. By checking this box, the applicant agrees to abide by all terms and conditions under which permission is granted to reproduce works of art in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and that permission is contingent upon payment of any applicable fees.

* Required fields

test View details