<p>One form of Arman's expression is the cut up or sawn apart objects that are then re-assembled in new ways. Most known and famous are his divided string instruments. The instruments are often made in life size. In its content and form, we can perceive influences of Picasso and Braque. However, Arman takes a step further and casts his works in bronze. At first, he deconstructs the objects and deprives them of meaning as a playable instrument. He starts a process of decay. But by casting the object in bronze, he ceases the process. </p> <p>What is left is a sculpture of music.</p> <p>Trumpettes Decaupees is a fine example of his re-assembled sculptures.</p> <p>Arman - Armand Pierre Fernandez, was born in Nice, 1928. After studies in mathematics and philosophy, Arman continued at an art school but decided to end his studies due to a conservatism within the teaching community at the school. He also studied archeology and oriental arts.</p> <p>He started to paint seriously during the 1940s but it was in the ‘50s, that he developed his abstract painting in the spirit of its time. It was as a sculptor that Arman achieved his great artistic breakthrough. The path to that went through a form of print where he used regular office rubber stamps. Inspiration was taken from Dada-artist Kurt Schwitters. The stamping technique evolved to become imprints of different objects dipped in paint.</p>