217 - ARMAN: A GOLD ‘BÉLIER’ BROOCH, CIRCA 1994 Of openwork design, the stylised ram’s head composed of two confronting trumpet bells above a pair of scrolling horns, the muzzle formed as a violin waist, in 18K gold, signed Arman, Artcurial, with maker's mark, numbered EA/1, French assay mark, length 4.5cm

ARMAN: A GOLD ‘BÉLIER’ BROOCH, CIRCA 1994 Of openwork design, the stylised ram’s head composed of two confronting trumpet bells above a pair of scrolling horns, the muzzle formed as a violin waist, in 18K gold, signed Arman, Artcurial, with maker's mark, numbered EA/1, French assay mark, length 4.5cm For reference see: Arman. Les bijoux du zodiaque, L'Œil, Paris, n° 463, juillet-août 1994, p.8. Condition Report: Eagle's head for French 18K gold Pin closes securely Minor signs of wear, overall in good condition Total gross weight approx. 25.6g Arman (1928–2005) was a French sculptor and jewellery design er who made art from the objects of everyday life. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, he grew up around his father’s antiques business, where he later said his instinct for collecting began. He trained at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Nice before enrolling at the École du Louvre in Paris. Initially influenced by Dada, he developed his own approach by gathering familiar objects in quantity, a practice he called Accumulation. In 1960, he and his friend and fellow artist Yves Klein helped found Nouveau Réalisme, a movement that drew its materials directly from contemporary life. In his Accumulations, Arman grouped watches, tools and other everyday objects in boxes or clear resin, creating patterns through repetition. He smashed musical instruments and rearranged the fragments in his Colères, while in his Coupes he sawed them into sections, exposing their interiors and composing with the resulting shapes. The violin was a favourite subject: the curve of its body or the tight spiral of its scroll could evoke the whole instrument. Like Alexander Calder, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso, Arman came to jewellery without formal training in goldsmithing. He began de signing jewels in the late 1950s, often producing them in editions of twelve. Between 1967 and 1978, he worked with GEM Montebello, the Italian publisher that brought artists’ jewellery to an international al audience. He adapted his methods of repetition and fragmentation to rings, gold brooches, pendants and necklaces. In 1994, Arman created the Collection de bijoux Zodiaque for Éditions Artcurial, the Paris publisher of artists’ multiples with whom he had worked since at least 1984. The twelve signs gave him a new use for the shapes he had isolated in his sculptures. In Bélier, the sign of Aries, violin scrolls curl into a ram’s horns and flared trumpet bells suggest its ears. The series was issued in gilt bronze and vermeil, and in a small number of 18 carat gold creations. By the time Arman passed away in New York in October 2005, his sculptures had entered major museum collections on both sides of the Atlantic. The Arman Studio & Archives documents his work in the city where he spent much of his career, while the Fondation A.R.M.A.N., established in Geneva in 2006, promotes his art and supports research into his life and work.