Description

This is a unique, original signed & framed drawing by ARMAN, created on a postcard and sent to art aficionado Dr. David Luisi in 1973. The drawing itself is a wonderful piece of conceptual art as it features a tube of paint with the artist's name on it, in the process of creating the drawing itself, and from where the artists salutation and signature emanate. The postcard bears a postmark dated 1973, from Vence, France, where Arman also had a residence, as he divided his time between New York and Vence.

This beautiful one of a kind drawing is framed and sold in the original frame. It is done on a standard size postcard. On the verso of the card is one of Arman's artworks. It was sent by Arman to Dr. Luisi in 1973, where it remained in his collection until this year. . The winning bidder will receive a copy of a poignant letter from Luisi certifying the work's authenticity and explaining how he acquired it; After describing how he spent his youth visiting art museums in Midwest America. Luisi writes, "Even though I lacked the money to purchase art from famous artists, then at least the slightest contact with them would...allow me to share some of their greatness. With this fantasy in mind I wrote to dozens of artists asking, if they would please send me an autograph... My pleas must have sounded so desperate that they responded not only with autographs but sometimes with small examples of their art, letters and other art memorabilia. Now that I am elderly and the stresses of those years have passed, I am deeply grateful for the kindness of these artists and the psychological lifelines they extended when I needed it most."

Indeed, one of those lifelines was extended by artist Arman through this wonderful autographed drawing of an artist’s paint tube. Ever the true art lover, Dr. Luisi cherished these notes for more than 30 years, where they remained in his private collection until this year.

The work is Unconditionally Guaranteed Authentic forever.

ARMAN BIOGRAPHY:

Born in Nice on the French Mediterranean coast, to Antonio Francisco Fernandez, an antiques dealer and amateur painter, and Marie Jacquet Fernandez, he learned the basics of painting from his father.
In a profile in The Villager in 2003 he said that he sold two landscapes a month as a youngster. He then went to Paris where he studied art and met artists, including Matisse and Picasso and the Americans Larry Rivers, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. An abstract painter until 1954, he became a member of the Nouveau Realistes group that included Yves Klein, Daniel Spoerri and Jean Tinguely, with whom he had his first show in 1960 At the group’s 1960 show in Paris, Klein showed a work called “La Vide” (“The Void”), consisting of a completely empty room, while Arman showed “Le Plien” (“Filled Up”), a gallery crammed from floor to ceiling with trash. He first came to New York in 1961, met Marcel Duchamp, the 1920s Dada pioneer, and played chess with him and other art pioneers, including Man Ray and Max Ernst. Late in life he returned to painting and had a show of recent works at the Marlborough Gallery in early 2003. Arman, whose name at birth was Armand Pierre Fernandez, assumed his working name after a printer mistakenly left the “D” off Armand. He became a U.S. citizen in 1973, retained French citizenship and maintained homes in Tribeca and in Vence, France. His wife, Corice Canton Arman, their children, Yasmin, Arman and Phillippe Arman, of New York, survive. Also surviving are his ex-wife, Eliane Radigue, and their daughters, Francoise Moreau and Anne Lamb, of France.