Jean Tinguely
Encyclopedia
– 30 August 1991 in Bern) was a Swiss painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. He is best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art
Kinetic art
Kinetic art is art that contains moving parts or depends on motion for its effect. The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer. Kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles.-Kinetic sculpture:...
, in the Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
tradition; known officially as metamechanics
Metamechanics
Metamechanics has a specific meaning in relation to art history, as a description of the kinetic sculpture machines of Jean Tinguely...
. Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society.
Tinguely grew up in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, but moved to France in 1952 with his first wife Swiss artist Eva Aeppli
Eva Aeppli
Eva Aeppli is a Swiss artist.-Personal life:Born in Zofingen, she spent her childhood in Basel where she attended the School of Decorative Arts. She moved to France in 1952 with her second husband Jean Tinguely, there she began her artistic career as a painter...
, to pursue a career in art. He belonged to the Parisian avantgarde in the mid-twentieth century and was one of the artists who signed the New Realist's
New realism
Nouveau réalisme refers to an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in the Apollinaire gallery in Milan...
manifesto (Nouveau réalisme) in 1960.
His best-known work, a self-destroying sculpture titled Homage to New York (1960), only partially self-destructed at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York City, although his later work, Study for an End of the World No. 2 (1962), detonated successfully in front of an audience gathered in the desert outside Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
.
In Arthur Penn's Mickey One
Mickey One
Mickey One is a 1965 surrealistic dramatic film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal. Its kaleidoscopic camerawork, film noir atmosphere, lighting and design aspects, Kafkaesque paranoia, philosophical themes and Warren Beatty's performance in the title...
(1965) the mime-like Artist (Kamatari Fujiwara) with his self-destructive machine is an obvious Tinguely tribute.
In 1971, Tinguely married Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès-Brandon Fal de Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.-The early years:...
.
Public works
- Le Cyclop outside of Milly-la-ForêtMilly-la-ForêtMilly-la-Forêt is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France.-Geology:The Forest of Fontainebleau in the western end of which Milly-la-Forêt lies, is composed of the Oligocene Fontainebleau sands, which are a marine deposit, laid down in an intertidal...
. - The Stravinsky FountainStravinsky FountainThe Stravinsky Fountain is a whimsical public fountain ornamented with sixteen works of sculpture, moving and spraying water, representing the works of composer Igor Stravinsky...
(fr: La Fontaine Stravinsky) near the Centre Pompidou, ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(1983), a collaboration with Niki de Saint PhalleNiki de Saint PhalleNiki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès-Brandon Fal de Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.-The early years:...
. - Carnival Fountain (Fasnachtsbrunnen) (1977) in BaselBaselBasel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
. - Tinguely Fountain (1977) in Basel.
- Lifesaver Fountain on Königstrasse in Duisburg, Germany, a collaboration with Niki de Saint PhalleNiki de Saint PhalleNiki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès-Brandon Fal de Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.-The early years:...
- Jo Siffert Fountain (commonly called Tinguely Fountain), Fribourg, Switzerland
- La Cascade, sculpture in the Carillon Building lobby, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Noise music recordings
- 1963 ‘Sounds of Sculpture’, 7”, Minami Gallery, Tokyo, Japan_[Tinguely’s sculptures recorded by avant-garde composer Toshi Ichiyanagi during Japanese exhibition]
- 1972 ‘Méta’, book+7_, Propyläen Verlag, Stockholm
- 1983 ‘‘Sculptures at The Tate Gallery, 1982_, Audio Arts cassette
- 1983 ‘Meta-Harmonie H’ incl. in ‘Meridians 2_ compmqenan ate a pie
- 2001 ‘Relief Meta-Mechanique Sonore I’ incl. in ‘A Diagnosis’ compilation, Revolver-Archiv Für Aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
See also
- New RealismNew realismNouveau réalisme refers to an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in the Apollinaire gallery in Milan...
- Rube GoldbergRube GoldbergReuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to...
—Conceptual pioneer of excessively complex machinery
Further reading
- chapter on Tinguely in Calvin Tomkins' The Bride and Her Bachelors.
- K. G. Pontus Hultén; Author of Jean Tinguely "Meta" (English translation published in 1975 by New York Graphic Society Ltd., Boston) Large hard cover, 519 Illustrations. Translated from German by Mary Whittall. Original German version published 1972.
External links
- Jean Tinguely in SIK ISEA (Swiss Institute for Art Research)
- Tinguely-Museum in Basel
- Biography by the Tinguely Museum in Basel
- Art Cyclopaedia: Jean Tinguely
- http://www.art-public.com/cyclop/cyclop_g.htm
- videos: Tinguely's kinetic fountains in Basel and Paris
- Métamatic Research Initiative
- http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/11/467Lecture by Kaira Cabañas (PhD, Princeton University) Homage to New York: Jean Tinguely's Destructive Art delivered November 20, 2008 in New York City at Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
]