“At a certain point, faced with some objects that I used for the Allures, I had the idea that if I used objects as a medium, I could also use objects as such.”

This bronze sculpture attributed to Arman consists of dismembered violins in upward rotatory movement. The dismembered bodies, bows, necks, scrolls and pegs covered with coloured patinas to simulate different materials are suspended in mid-air, held together with visible joins. They constitute an Accumulation of a few repeated elements in accordance with a formal system with precise echoes of Cubism, to which the subject itself, the multiplication of forms and the particular rhythmic cadence all refer in a blatant appropriation that Arman also extends to other artistic movements. Although the work is three-dimensional, the specific viewpoint reveals the two-dimensional conception peculiar to pictorial vision that underpins many of his works. Apart from a few details, the arrangement of elements is identical to that of Evolution (1984), covered with a uniform gilt patina typically created by the artist himself. 

Arman started using violins in 1961, initially in the series of Colères (Anger), Coupes (Cuts) and Accumulations. A signatory of the manifesto of Nouveau Réalisme on 27 October 1960 together with Dufrêne, Hains, Klein, Raisse, Spoerri, Tinguely, Villeglé and the critic Pierre Restany, he created his first Accumulations in 1959. This is how he describes this key invention in the essay Réalisme des accumulations, written in 1960 and published three years later: “At a certain point, faced with some objects that I used for the Allures, I had the idea that if I used objects as a medium, I could also use objects as such.”¹ As a result, real objects were used in Arman’s works for nearly two decades until he adopted a technique enabling him to employ new formal solutions and place sculptures also of monumental size in outdoor locations. The conception of the first work in bronze - a violin - was connected with a drive for multiplication and serial production: 

“Diego Strasser and Sarenco […] came to see me about making a multiple. I created a violin cut in two, which was cast in bronze in 1978. […] I soon realised the possibilities. If I break a cello, I can only make it stand up by putting the pieces in plastic or attaching them with screws. If I transpose it into bronze, the pieces remain free in space and stand up by themselves. […] Moreover, the bronze had the advantage of being capable of multiplication.”² 

As a result, Arman made great use of bronze in the late 1970s in Accumulations of objects and utensils. The first half of the 1980s then saw numerous bronze sculptures of musical and especially stringed instruments, and still more numerous multiples. These were exhibited in public and private spaces all through a period that saw major recognition for the artist both inside and outside France. The best-known works include the bronze Accumulation of guitars A ma jolie (To My Darling, 1982), an avowed tribute to Picasso. On show in the Picasso Museum in Antibes since 1983, it bears witness to the Arman retrospective featuring Accumulations of musical instruments held there that year. 

It is perhaps reasonable to suggest that Francesco Federico Cerruti, who usually spent his holidays in his house in Menton, either saw or was in any case aware of the show in Antibes in 1983, and that his interest in purchasing a work by Arman was born in that period.³ The year 1982 also saw the exhibition Les Nouveaux Réalistes at the Galerie des Ponchettes in Nice, but Cerruti’s interest in this group remained limited and his collection includes no works by its other members. 

Valeria D’Urso

¹ “À un moment donné, je me suis trouvé avec des objets que j’employais pour les Allures, m’est venue cette idée: j’emploie les objets comme médium, pourquoi ne pas employer les objets eux-mêmes?” (A. Jouffroy, interview with Arman, in L’OEil, no. 125, 1965).

² “Diego Strasser et Sarenco […] sont venus me voir pour faire un multiple. J’ai fait un violon coupé en deux qui a été coulé dans le bronze en 1978. […] J’ai rapidement compris les possibilités; si je cassais un violoncelle, je devais, pour le faire tenir debout, mettre les débris dans du plastique ou les fixer avec des vis. Si je le transpose en bronze, les morceaux restent libres dans l’espace et tiennent debout. […] De plus, le bronze avait l’avantage de pouvoir être multiplié” (Arman, Mémoires accumulées. Entretiens avec Otto Hahn, Paris 1992, p. 220).

³ According to Annalisa Polesello Ferrari, Cerruti’s secretary, the sculpture attributed to Arman entered the collection in the first half of the 1980s.