The next Artist You Need To Know is Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991).
Tinguely was a Swiss sculptor : his kinetic sculptural machines – which he called Métamatics – are his most renowned works and are seen as a continuation of the Dada aesthetic (‘I am an artist educated by Duchamp’ he famously declared). Satire and a cynical eye towards the capitalist and ‘technological overproduction of material goods’ that defined much of the twentieth century are defining elements of his artwork.
From The Art Story : “Jean Tinguely first began creating assemblages composed of found-objects, but soon thereafter, intrigued by the current debate regarding the effect of mechanization and industrial innovation on modern society, he completely altered these static works by putting them into motion. Tinguely was intrigued by the effect of these moving constructions on the spectator and devoted the rest of his career to its exploration. The resultant oeuvre, on both a small and large scale, in works that generated corollary works of art and those that self-destructed, instigated spectator reaction and forever challenged the concept of a static experience of viewing art.”
“To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there’s no such thing as perfect.”
He was born in Firbourg but spent the majority of his life in Basel : Tinguely attended the Kunstgewerbeschule from 1941 to 1945 before relocating to France in 1952. He (and his first wife, artist Eva Aeppli) quickly became part of the Parisian avant-garde milieu, and he was part of the New Realist (Nouveau réalisme) movement, being one of the signers of their 1960 manifesto.
One of the works for which Tinguely is most renowned is his Homage to New York : A Self-Constructing and Self- Destroying Work of Art Conceived and Built by Jean Tinguely. This installation / sculpture / performance took place on Mar 17, 1960. Several videos of this event can be seen here and here.
From MOMA, where the event took place :
“On March 18, 1960, Tinguely unveiled what would later be considered his most famous work in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A number of artists and engineers collaborated on the project, including Robert Rauschenberg. The massive sculpture stood twenty-seven feet tall, was twenty-three feet wide, and was painted primarily white. Built out of various pieces of metal, bicycle parts, self-operating motors, a go-cart, a bathtub, a piano, all jutting out into space at odd angles and creating an absolute tangle of abstract forms. The original idea was to set the mechanized elements into motion, allow the audience to watch and figure out its changing path of movement, and then set off an explosion that would destroy it. The work was to be a masterpiece of self-destructing Kinetic art. However, 27 minutes into the premiere, one of the processes within the moving parts misfired and sparked a flame that engulfed the entire machine in a blazing fire. The spectacle to which this esteemed audience (including the Governor of New York) was subjected became as much a part of the artistic experience as the original work itself.
The launch of this intricate, self-destructing sculpture changed the nature of Tinguely’s art. Although he had already harnessed active viewer interaction in his Métamatics, this work’s significance was to be even further enhanced by the experience of being present as it self-destructed. In total, the work was to assume an alternative symbolism, suggesting, for example the organic nature of New York City – known for both destruction and reconstruction, exhaustion and renewal.
A “fragment” of the original sculpture exists in the permanent collection of the MOMA.”
Tinguely was groundbreaking in his work in the area of kinetic sculpture, influencing artists for generations to come (including the notorious, darkly comedic SRL – Survival Research Laboratories of the 1990.
From Artsy : “Movement was central to Tinguely’s practice, manifesting in dynamic mobiles, motor-powered assemblages, and large-scale, rotating set designs. Many of his pieces invited audience participation via buttons, levers, and other elements that viewers could push to activate the artworks.”
Tinguely’s works were often a bit self deprecating and even a bit absurd – often using humour to expose hypocrisy and foibles of the larger consumer society – but also had a darker undertone that would manifest in one of his more significant later works.
From here : “In the mid-80s, Tinguely suffered a heart attack and his later work—the grandest of which, Mengele-Totentanz (1986), fittingly closes the exhibition—is permeated by a sense of morbidity. Named after the infamous Nazi doctor and made out of debris the artist salvaged from a neighboring farmhouse in Neyruz, Switzerland, when it burnt down after being struck by lightning—perhaps an eerie parallel to him being struck down by a heart attack—as well as other grim pieces like a hippopotamus skull, the installation is a series of 14 moving sculptures representing a demon and his acolytes performing a macabre choreography of hissing and cranking while casting ominous shadows on the walls of the darkened exhibition space.”
Appropriately, this work is unnerving. Tinguely’s cynical approach to technology (in a manner that refutes ideas of futurism or progress, even) can be seen in his choice of inspiration here, with the industrialized mass murder that defined the Nazi regime in Germany. In this manner, Tinguely’s self destructing machines can be seen as the artworks his era deserved, holding up a mirror to the society of the time.
Several videos of the installation can be seen here and here.
The artist exhibited widely during his lifetime, both in galleries and less traditional sites. Tinguely created a number of public sculptures (a listing can be seen here) and exhibited his static artworks and interactive creations at the Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and Palazzo Grassi.
Tinguely married Niki de Saint Phalle (his second wife and a previous Artist You Need To Know) in 1971 : they would collaborate on many projects over the course of their marriage. He would pass away from heart failure in 1991, when he was 66 years old. His entire estate was given to Saint Phalle which she then gifted to the Museum Tinguely in Basel.
The Museum Tinguely in Basel is so unique and attractive that it’s listed as a destination to consider on Atlas Obscura.
Much more about Jean Tinguely’s art and impact can be seen here and here. A number of videos – essential to truly experiencing his Métamatics kinetic sculptures – can be found online, but several very good ones can be seen here and here.