Armando (artist)
Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd (born September 18, 1929), known as Armando, is a Dutch painter, sculptor and writer.
Biography
Armando was born in Amsterdam, and as child 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 and 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 art history at the University of Amsterdam.
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 made abstract drawings—with his left hand, in the dark. He was also influenced by Dubuffet and Jean Fautrier, producing thickly impastoed paintings.
In 1958 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.