219 - ARMAN (1928–2005)

ARMAN (1928–2005) Cut-Up Trumpets, circa 1985 Bronze trumpets, cut and welded Signed on the base 66 x 26 cm Provenance: Private collection, France. Arman explains this anger toward musical instruments as stemming from a personal experience that was both negative and filled with admiration for music. With the philosophy and intensity of judo, Arman artfully destroys in order to approach objects in a different way and analyze them. Among the objects Arman used, musical instruments undeniably gave rise to the greatest number of interventions: “Colères,” cuts, accumulations, burnings, bronze castings, and assemblages. While Arman’s actions may foreshadow the beginnings of “happenings”—particularly with his *Colères* series—it should be noted that the artist was always more interested in the results—which, depending on the curvature of the materials used, resembled Baroque or Cubist styles—than in the means by which they were achieved. These processes are preserved as works in their own right, like a frozen adventure, in the manner of Daniel Spoerri’s “trap paintings.”