Jean Tinguely is remembered for his entertaining mechanical sculptures, but there was much more to him than ingenious contraptions made from junk. A new exhibition highlights his role as one of the most original and provocative artists of his time.
Jean Tinguelywas always pushing the frontiers of art.
For over 30 years, the Swiss artist was an influential figure in the European avant-garde. Tinguely@Tinguely, on at Basel’s Museum Tinguely, also looks at his role as an agitator and a poet through the revamping of a collection started 16 year ago. Many more major pieces and biographical elements have been added to the collection over time.
Article published by http://www.swissinfo.ch on 19 November 2012 in the following languages (links):
A fresh look at Tinguely
Ein frischer Blick auf Jean Tinguely
Bruits et fureur de Tinguely à Bâle
Tinguely sotto una luce nuova
Tinguely bajo una nueva luz
Um novo olhar sobre Jean Tinguely
動く彫刻を作ったタンゲリーに、再びに光を当てる
نظرةٌ جديدة على جون تانغلي.. الإنسان والفنان
用崭新的眼光重新看待艺术家汤格力
“We need to revisit Tinguely’s work to rediscover how inventive he was,” Roland Wetzel, the director of the Tinguely Museum said in an interview on opening day.
The new display occupies all four floors of the Mario Botta-designed museum and will stay in place until September 2013.
After being greeted in the hall by three of Tinguely’s spectacular and monumental later works, the visitor is swept up an inclined gallery that dominates the Rhine below.
Photos Michèle Laird
On the long stretch of wall a pictorial biography maps out the artist’s life, interspersed with some of the catchphrases that reveal his cynical humour (see below).
The exhibition spaces are arranged chronologically, allowing a better understanding of the artist’s evolution and the successive phases in his work.
Starting with Tinguely’s 1954 kinetic paintings (wall hangings with abstract shapes that twirl and glide), we then discover the 1959 Meta-maticdrawing machines that invite visitors to make their own drawings by equipping the jiggling arm with a felt-pen and paper. By involving onlookers in his kinetic pieces, Tinguely was allowing anyone to become an artist and transforming our relationship to art.
Robust junkyard assemblages followed, which in turn gave place between 1961 and 1963 to the feathery Baluba sculptures that perform wild and provocative dances and finally to his mega sculptures.
Original photo by Lennart Olsen, exhibition photo by Michèle Laird
The different sides of Tinguely appear: playful, reflective, aggressive, politically indignant, sexually charged, and poetic. His early indignation against excessive consumerism takes on a new meaning in present times.
Pivotal role
Especially revealing are the drawings, most of them illustrated letters to his friends. They became more colourful, teasing and even provocative as the years passed.
“It was as if Tinguely outsourced his life,” explained Wetzel, adding: “We have many more, but some are too intimate to show.”
The purpose of the exhibition, he continued, is also to emphasise Tinguely’s pivotal role in performance art in the 1950s and 1960s avant-garde. Several television screens air the happenings that he orchestrated with fellow artists.
Yves Klein of the famous Klein blue and the American Pop artist, Robert Rauchenburg were two of his many accomplices. He also formed one of the 20th century’s most colourful couples with Niki de Saint Phalle, who developed her garish and exuberant “Nanas” when they were together.
Self-destruction was a reoccurring theme in these performances, a reflection of Tinguely’s obsession with death that is said to have been inspired by the Basel carnival’s macabre dances, as well as a traumatising incident during the war when he saw a woman’s head blown off by bomb shrapnel.
The performances were initiated as early as 1960 when Homage to New York took place in the garden of the Modern Art Museum in New York. However, not understanding that the Tinguely machine was programmed to self-destruct in a blaze, a fireman stepped in after 27 minutes, aborting the performance.
Later attempts were more successful and there is definitely a Monty Python spirit to some of them; Like the legendary self-destruction of a phallus in front of Milan Cathedral to celebrate the demise of the Nouveaux Réalistes, a movement he had cofounded ten years earlier in Paris.
Authentic restorations
It is, of course, a very loud exhibition, as the machines throttle into action and let out their clangs or play the instruments meshed into their structures. They are subjected to heavy use as visitors gleefully push on the red start buttons to put them in motion, and so need constant attention and repair. “They are never the same at the end of each day,” mused Wetzel.
Intrigued by their complex conservation, swissinfo.ch met with Reinhard Bek, who until recently was in charge of the restoration programme. “Luckily most of Tinguely’s work is well documented, so we can refer back to the originals,” he explained
Furthermore, the presence over the years of Josef Imhof, Tinguely’s long-time assistant was vital, Bek said: “He gave us a sense of what is important”.
“These machines have a life of their own and our role is to preserve their spirituality, as well as their materiality,” he stated, admitting that security was also an issue because of the sharp pieces of junk metal and the use of electricity. Many of the repairs are outsourced to specialists.
“They may no longer be the originals, but they remain authentic,” he smiled, reminding us that Tinguely in his time was also continually adjusting his machines.
“What we hope to have achieved with this exhibition is to bring to the minds of people how innovative Tinguely was in every respect,” Roland Wetzel added.
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Tinguely@Tinguely: The exhibition runs in Basel until 30 September 2013 at the Museum Tinguely.
The basis for the collection at the Museum Tinguely was provided by Niki de Saint Phalle’s donation of 52 sculptures from the estate of Jean Tinguely in 1992. Since then the collection has been continuously expanded by further purchases and donations, including from Pontus Hulten, the influential Swedish curator and museum director.
Tinguely claimed that he was applying the Marcel Duchamp precept that art could be made out of anything, as long as the spectator perceived it as art. He conceived paintings, drawings, sculptures, machines, installations, furniture, lamps and videos. He maintained throughout his life a passion for racecar driving and attended Grand Prix races all over the world.
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Tinguely milestones
– 1925-53: Born May 22, 1925 in Fribourg, his family moved to Basel when he was two. Trained as a window dresser, met his first wife, Eva Aeppli. Moved to Paris.
– 1954-58: First exhibitions in Paris of his kinetic paintings. Befriended Yves Klein.
– 1959: His Meta-Matic drawing machines are an instant success.
– 1961-63: Balubasare created as a political response to the trauma suffered by the Bantus, a Congolese tribe, when their newly elected president, Patrice Lumumba, was shot dead shortly after gaining independence for his country.
– 1960-69: Happenings and performances: Stages spectacular auto-destructive actions at MoMA in New York and in Amsterdam. Niki de Saint Phalle moves in with him in 1961, they marry ten years later. Signs declaration of the Nouveaux Réalistes.
– 1964-69: International consecration with Niki: Expo 64 in Lausanne; Hon (a 28m long walk-in recumbent “Nana”) at Moderna Musset in Stockholm; Expo 67 in Montreal; Expo 70 in Osaka.
– 1970-76: While working on his major work, Le Cyclop, in Milly-la-Forêt near Paris, he stages the demise of the Nouveaux Réalisteswith the self-destruction of a phallus in Milan and a scandalous funeral procession of the Basel Carnival Committee.
– 1977: Inaugurates the Tinguely Fountain of the Theaterplatz in Basel on the back of a camel.
– 1978-83: Niki and Jean work on several projects together, including the Stravinski Fountain for Centre Pompidou in Paris.
– 1984-88: Tinguely’s health deteriorates. The theme of death occurs more frequently in his works, including Inferno. Major retrospective at Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Completes monumental works, including including Méta Harmonie IV – Fatamorgana(1985)andGrosse Méta Maxi-Maxi Utopia(1987),
– 1991: Dies of a heart attack in Bern on August 30 at the age of 66. He had three children, but none by Niki. The third, Jean-Sebastien, was born after his death.
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Tinguely quotes
– “The only stable thing is movement – everywhere and always.” 1966
(L’unique chose stable, c’est le mouvement, partout et toujours.)
– “Dreams are everything – technique can be learned.”
(Le rêve, c’est tout – la technique, ça s’apprend.)
– “I emphasize sounds, eliminate some, accentuate others or let them repeat themselves, change rhythms according to certain tonalities.” 1988
(J’accentue des sons, en élimine quelques-uns, augmente celui-là ou le fais répéter, change des rythmes en certaines tonalités.)
– “I have always been anti-everything and certainly anti-art or meta-art or shit-art.” 1991
(J’ai toujours été anti-tout et surtout anti-art ou méta-art, ou merde à l’art.)
– “As soon as I touch junk – it’s magic.” 1990
(Dès que je touche à la féraille – c’est la magie)
– “I want to make a living game out of death, I want death in the way it is presented in the famous Basel dance of death.” 1989
(Je veux faire de la mort un jeu vivant, je veux la mort comme elle est dans la célèbre Danse macabre de Bâle)
– “It is always impolite to die, especially for others.”
(C’est toujours impoli de mourir, envers les autres)
Exclusive interview of Roland Wentzel
Tangling with a new side of Jean Tinguely broadcast on World Radio Switzerland news on 15 November 2012
Presenter’s intro: Since its opening in Basel in 1996, the Tinguely Museum has acquired more and more works by famous Swiss contemporary artist. With its latest exhibition, called “Tinguely@Tinguely,” Jean Tinguely’s noisy, mechanical machines are still on display, but there is also a focus on his wilder side. Tinguely was also a radical and influential artist in the 1960s, orchestrating outrageous performances with his wife Niki de Saint Phalle and other seminal conspirators. Arts correspondent Michèle Laird meets up with Roland Wetzel, director of the museum, amongst the noisy machines and children.
art-folio by michèle laird 