Armando is born in 1929 in Amsterdam as Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd. He spends his childhood in Amersfoort. After the Second World War he studies art history in Amsterdam and develops into a visual artist. He has his first solo exhibition in 1954, in the Amsterdam gallery Le Canard. During this period he also starts writing poetry.
In 1958 Armando founds the Dutch Informal Group with, among others, Jan Henderikse, Henk Peeters and Jan Schoonhoven. The group strives to dissolve recognizable forms in the material and to refrain from figuration. In 1960, the aforementioned artists continue as Groep Nul (Zero). The aims of the Informal Group are being put into practice even more radically by Nul, by adding principles like monochromy and seriality.
As a poet-writer, Armando is involved in the Flemish-Dutch magazine Gard Sivik, founded in 1955, and in 1965 he co-founds the literary magazine De Nieuwe Stijl.
In addition to visual arts and literature, Armando is also active in journalism, music (as a violinist in the gypsy orchestra of Tata Mirando), theatre and television. From 1971 to 1997 he plays with Cherry Duyns (and Johnny van Doorn) in the TV series Herenleed: sketches for two gentlemen full of absurdist humour.
Since 1979, Armando lives and works alternately in Amstelveen and Berlin. In 1998 the Armando Museum is established in Amersfoort, in the former Elleboogkerk. On October 22, 2007, this church burns down, with almost all of Armando’s works present and a number of valuable loans being lost.
Armando dies on July 1, 2018, in Potsdam (Germany).
