FERNANDEZ ARMAN (1928-2005) lithograph in colours

signed in pencil ‘Arman’ (lower right) and inscribed ‘E.A.’ (lower left) artist’s proof 65.5 x 49 cm Provenance: Private collection, South of France «A painting is something like a spectacle, a theater piece in which each figure lives out her part.» - Leonor Fini Her work is characterized by the complex relationship between the sexes, primarily the interplay between the dominant female and the passive, androgynous male. Considered one of the most important female artists of the mid-twentieth century, Leonor Fini was born in Buenos Aires in 1907 to Italian and Argentine parents, Leonor grew up in Trieste, Italy. She relocated to Paris in 1931 and developed close relationships with the leading surrealist writers and painters, including Paul Eluard, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, who became her lover for a time. However she never considered herself a surrealist. In 1936 Leonor was invited by the American dealer Julien Levy to participate in a joint exhibition with Max Ernst in New York, where she met American surrealists including Joseph Cornell and Pavel Tchelitchew. Her work was included in MoMA’s pivotal Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism exhibition, along with De Chirico, Dali, Ernst, and Yves Tanguy.