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Biography

(b Fribourg, 22 May 1925; d Berne, 30 Aug 1991). Swiss sculptor. He began experimenting with mechanical sculptures in the late 1930s, hanging objects from the ceiling and using a motor to make them rotate. In 1940 he began an apprenticeship as a window-dresser and also attended art classes at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule, Basle. From 1941 to 1945 he studied there with Julia Ris (b 1904) and discovered the work of Kurt Schwitters, which made ... (view more)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

(b Fribourg, 22 May 1925; d Berne, 30 Aug 1991). Swiss sculptor. He began experimenting with mechanical sculptures in the late 1930s, hanging objects from the ceiling and using a motor to make them rotate. In 1940 he began an apprenticeship as a window-dresser and also attended art classes at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule, Basle. From 1941 to 1945 he studied there with Julia Ris (b 1904) and discovered the work of Kurt Schwitters, which made a deep impression on him. After World War II he began painting in a Surrealist manner, but he soon abandoned painting to concentrate on sculpture. In 1949 he met Daniel Spoerri. In 1953 they created the ‘Autothéâtre’, a ballet of colours and movable décor, made up of coloured forms in motion. Here there was no difference between actor and spectator, and actions were performed on stage without the participation of actors, the spectator being the same as an actor, much like the later Happening. The same year Tinguely moved to Paris. There he produced his first abstract spatial constructions, which were gradually equipped with moving mechanisms that could be set in motion by the viewer. These early machines, which Tinguely called ‘meta-mechanical’ devices (e.g. Meta-mechanical Automobile Sculpture , 1954; see fig.) were characterized by their use of movement as a central element in their construction. Some of them took the form of series paraphrasing the idioms of other artists, for example the Meta-Kandinsky series (1955) or the Meta-Malevich reliefs (1954), in which geometric shapes were made to rotate at constant, but different, speeds with the aid of spindles and pulleys against the background of a black wooden panel. In 1955 Tinguely participated in the exhibition of kinetic art, Le Mouvement , at the Galerie Denise René in Paris, and in the late 1950s he produced the Meta-matic painting machines (e.g. Meta-matic No. 17 , 1959; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.). These were portable machines with drawing arms that allowed the spectator to produce abstract works of work automatically. They were first exhibited at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris in 1959; not all of the Meta-matics functioned properly, and Tinguely destroyed some of them. He then began to incorporate electric motors into his works, taking as his models the ‘roto-reliefs’ created by Marcel Duchamp.  (hide)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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