Arman 1928–2005
Born in 1928 in Nice, France, Armand Pierre Fernandez was one of the most prolific and innovative artists working in the French Pop Art movement. Arman began his formal training at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratif in Nice in 1946, but then moved to Paris study at the Ecole du Louvre. In 1947, he forged a friendship with fellow artist Yves Klein, and the two soon began to create art that responded to the post-war condition. Arman’s art dealt with the Duchampian notion of the ready-made, as he employed commodity objects to question the ideas of exuberant mass-production. In 1960, he joined Klein to found the French artistic group Nouveau Réalisme, which sought to find “new ways of looking at the real.”
In 1961, Arman moved to New York, where he took up residence in the infamous Chelsea Hotel. Arman felt that in coming to New York, he was “in the center of [his] dreams, vitrines of vitrines, a profusion of windowed crystals on the rock of Manhattan.” He became friends with fellow Pop Artist Andy Warhol, who began to collect Arman’s work and in 1964, Arman was featured in Warhol’s film Dinner at Daley's. Arman was granted American citizenship in 1972. In 1982, he constructed his formative sculpture Long Term Parking, which consisted of an obelisk-like pile of cars encased in concrete. In 1991, the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York honored Arman with the first U.S. retrospective of his works. Arman died in 2005, but he left behind a legacy of art that played with the conventions of consumer commodities. His works are housed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tate Museum in London, among many others.
Auction Results Arman
Arman
Door to Confusion
estimate: $40,000–60,000
result: $40,960
Arman
untitled
estimate: $25,000–35,000
result: $22,500
Arman
Violins
estimate: $15,000–20,000
result: $20,000
Arman
Violon cased flatware service
estimate: $10,000–15,000
result: $20,000
Arman
Wall of Violins
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $16,250
Arman
Violins
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $15,000
Arman
Untitled (table)
estimate: $10,000–15,000
result: $10,000
Arman
untitled (Paint Tubes)
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $6,600
Arman
table lamp
estimate: $3,000–4,000
result: $5,100
Arman
Paintbox
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $3,840
Arman
Small Aleph
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $3,000
Arman
Demi Tasse breakfast service
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $2,500
Arman
Waiting to Exhale
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,300
Arman 1928-2005
Inclusion de Telephones Portables
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $2,040
Arman
Frozen Civilization 1
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $1,905
Arman
Tubes necklace
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $1,875
Arman 1928-2005
Violins
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $1,250
Arman
Dollar Bill
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $1,084
Arman
Untitled (envelope)
estimate: $500–700
result: $975
Arman
Paint Tube necklace
estimate: $500–700
result: $813
Arman
Untitled (Delft Plates)
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $635
Arman
Paint Tube brooch
estimate: $500–700
result: $313
Arman
Tortured Color Plexiglas from the S.M.S. Portfolio
estimate: $400–600
result: $230
Arman
Violins
estimate: $400–600