Arman - Tortured Color [from S.M.S. No. 4] - 1968

ARMAN (1928-2005).

"Tortured Color".

S.M.S. Issue No. 4, (1968). With paper mounting instructions, two sheets of plexiglass, nuts, bolts, and a tube of paint.

The Letter Edged in Black Press, New York, USA, 1968.

Mounted in a box frame with glass (31.5 x 22.5 cm). Originally all the components were gathered in a small plastic bag.

Like many of Arman's S.M.S. issues (or, for example, Yoko Ono's contribution, which is very similar), with traces of paint from the oil tube and stains on the paper, in keeping with the artist's aesthetic intentions.


Ironic contribution of French painter and sculptor Arman to the S.M.S. portfolios conceived by William Copley & Dmitri Petrov in 1968. And one of the most difficult to obtain.

Initially an edition of 2000 copies was proposed. Finally, because of the cost of the edition and the abandonment of many copies in a warehouse by the editor W. Copley, there were barely a few hundred left. Today is a milestone in the History of Contemporary Art.

The 'SMS' portfolios (inspired by the famous Boîte-en-valise, by Marcel Duchamp and, in general, by the irreverence of the DADA movement and the multiples of the FLUXUS movement), represented a reaction against the elitism of the art world by to deliver, by regular subscription, pieces by artists we consider today among the most important of the 20th century (Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichstenstein, Joseph Kosuth, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, John Cage, Bernar Venet, Mel Ramos, Walter de Maria, Christo Javacheff, Dieter Roth, Claes Oldenburg..),. The deliveries of Shit Must Stop barely lasted 1 year due to the increase in the cost of publishing the works and their distribution.


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