Published by Marsilio Arte. Edited with text by Camille Morineau, Lucia Pesapane, Vicente Todolí, Fiammetta Griccioli. Text by Renzo Piano, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Annalisa Rimmaudo, Jean Tinguely, Melissa Warak.
This volume documents the first major Italian retrospective since his death of the work of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925–91), one of the 20th century’s greatest exponents of kinetic art. At the center of his work lies research into the functioning and intrinsic poetry of machines. Tinguely was among the first artists to use found objects that he then welded together, creating noisy and cacophonous machines whose movements were driven by motors. This monograph analyzes Tinguely’s practice, providing detailed descriptions of the works in the exhibition, accompanied by an ample selection of contemporary and archival images. The volume also includes an essay that sets Tinguely’s work against the background of the contemporaneous avant-garde, another on the role of sound and performance in his work in the context of the 1960s, an illustrated timeline of the artist’s career and two reprinted texts written by Tinguely himself.
Published by Koenig Books. Text by Kaira Cabañas, Hans-Christian von Herrmann, Dominik Müller, Johan Pas, Margriet Schavemaker, Barbara Til, Beat Wismer, Thekla Zell.
Associated with the Nouveaux Réalistes and Zero, Swiss painter and sculptor Jean Tinguely (1925–91) is best known for his whirring, jangling meta-mechanic sculptures, which take up Dada’s mantle in their use of discarded materials and their wit, humor and irony. But this perception of Tinguely as merely a playful kinetic sculptor neglects the more topical, critical, theoretical and interdisciplinary aspects of Tinguely’s work. An extensive monograph on this chronically underpublished artist, Jean Tinguely: Retrospective is the first publication to explore the artist’s work from this perspective.
Tinguely’s machines are built to malfunction or self-destruct, expressing a pessimistic view of human existence and death--and yet they are infectiously cheerful. His meta-mechanics suggest a hobbyist’s enthusiasm for technology, but made out of junk, they also suggest the artist’s skepticism regarding technological advance. Tinguely loved art history, and yet he launched savage attacks on the museum with pieces that are now seminal works of institutional critique.
With contributions from Kaira Cabañas, Hans-Christian von Herrmann, Dominik Müller, Johan Pas, Margriet Schavemaker, Barbara Til and Beat Wismer, this volume presents Tinguely as an artist whose work sustained contradictions and courted ambiguity.
Jean Tinguely: Retrospective