I’ve pointed out a fair amount of saxophone art on my blog, but for the most part it could be described as folk art, or in many cases mass produced. This morning however, I noticed something on eBay which was markedly different than previous offerings: a piece of saxophone art by a well known artist.
Arman was a French-born, American artist who was born in 1928 in Nice, France. Throughout his extremely prolific career he worked with a great many mediums including concrete and polymer resin, as well as the more traditional ones such as oil paints and bronze.
Arman was the son of an antiques dealer and an amateur cellist, which might explain his fascination with music and musical instruments. He studied art and art history at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice, and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris respectively.
His work—strongly influenced by Dada, and in turn a strong influence on Pop Art—is in the collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Source: Biography page on The Official Arman Website
Throughout his lifetime Arman was passionate about politics and human rights. Although he passed away in 2005, through the efforts of his wife and the Arman P. Arman Trust, his legacy continues to live on.¹
Given who this artist was, you can imagine my surprise when I noticed a piece of Arman’s work on eBay this morning. This untitled piece of art is a representation of a sliced saxophone.
Source: eBay.com
This is what the seller, Masterworks Fine Art, writes about this interesting piece:
Artist: Arman, (1928 – 2005)
Title: Untitled (Saxophone), 1984
Medium: Original bronze sculpture with nickel plating
Image Size: DIMENSIONS: 30 x 19 x 8 in (76.2 x 48.3 x 20.3 cm)
Signature: Hand signed by Fernandez Arman (Nice, 128 – New York, 2005) along lower side of the sculpture.
Edition: Annotated E.A. (artist’s proof) along the lower side of the sculpture.
Condition: This work is in pristine condition.
Description: Sliced vertically into three, delicate pieces, Arman creates an exquisite, nearly life size sculpture of a saxophone. Though this saxophone is disjointed and disconnected, it retains a sense of uniformity, as if the pieces could easily fit back together to form a solid instrument. Separated, however, the piece relays a sense of fragility; the instrument appears to nearly float above its dark green, marble base, connected only by thin, bronze, strips that quiver at the slightest movement. Arman does not lose any detail in this depiction; each lever and button is clearly conveyed in this sculpture; so accurate is his depiction that the viewer cannot help but feel as if Arman cut a real instrument rather than casting it in bronze with nickel plating.
Created in 1984, this original bronze sculpture with nickel plating is hand signed by Fernandez Arman (Nice, 128 – New York, 2005) along the lower side of the sculpture and also annotated E.A. (artist’s proof) along the lower side of the sculpture.
Source: eBay.com
This sculpture is actually featured on the late artist’s website. This confirms that the piece was indeed done in 1984, and is in fact 30″ tall.
Now if you have concerns about buying such a valuable piece of art through eBay, presumably you are not alone. On the actual eBay ad and their eBay store’s home page, Masterworks Fine Art has quite a lengthy explanation about who they are, their credentials, and what kind of assurances they offer their buyers.
Now if one sliced up sax isn’t enough for you, if you go to Masterworks Fine Art’s actual website—as opposed to their eBay store—you can satisfy your need for multiple saxes with Arman’s Double Châssis sculpture from 1994.
Now getting back to the eBay offering, the auction for this untitled piece by Arman ends on April 21. The Sale price is $15,750.00. Its regular price—and what it’s listed for on the Masterworks Fine Art website—is $35,000.
You could always try your hand at an offer, but I would say it’s still got to be a reasonable one. This is after all an actual piece of art by a famous artist, as opposed to a mass produced piece made in China.
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Update: This interesting Arman sliced-saxophone sculpture did not sell on eBay. Not even at the sale price of $15,750.00. Go figure. Guess the economy isn’t quite as good as it could be yet.