Arman

ARMAN (Nice, 1928–New York, 2005).
“Sérénade. Cut-out Violin and Hunting Horns.”
Cut, welded, and assembled bronze, with light and dark patinas; AP 1/2 edition.
Signed and numbered.
Measurements: 107 cm tall.

“Sérénade” encapsulates one of Arman’s most emblematic explorations: the transformation of the musical instrument into sculptural material. The artist brings together fragments of a violin and various hunting horns in a densely packed vertical composition, where soundboxes, necks, bows, and bell-shaped ends intertwine around an ascending axis. The objects retain their recognizable identity but are stripped of their musical function, thereby acquiring a new sculptural autonomy.

The alternation of light and dark patinas accentuates the complexity of the assemblage and allows the viewer to distinguish the composition’s different planes. The curves of the wind instruments interact with the silhouetted outlines of the strings, creating a balance between volume, void, and movement. The title introduces a deliberate paradox: the serenade has been suspended and silenced, though its rhythm persists in the almost orchestral arrangement of the elements.

Bronze captures and immortalizes a process born of cutting and recomposition. It is not merely a matter of representing instruments, but of transforming them directly into the vocabulary of the work. This piece thus belongs to the core of Arman’s oeuvre, for whom musical instruments were among the most fertile subjects, subjected to accumulation, destruction, cutting, burning, casting, and assembly. Its status as AP 1/2—one of two proofs reserved for the artist—further reinforces the uniqueness of this piece.

A co-founder of the Nouveau Réalisme movement in 1960, Arman placed manufactured objects and the waste products of consumer society at the center of contemporary artistic language. His work is represented in international institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.