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Fountain no. 2 steel base and support painted red, iron wheels, tin cover, rubber belts and tubes, and an electric motor 911/2in (232cm.) high. Executed in 1963 PROVENANCE Virginia Dwan, Los Angeles. Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1992. LITERATURE C. Bischofberger, Jean Tinguely: Catalogue Raisonn‚, Sculptures and Reliefs 1954-1968, Zurich 1982, no. 309 (illustrated p. 213). NOTES Executed in 1960, this sculpture one of Tinguely's first fountains. The fountains marked Tinguely's adoption of the element of water as a naturally kinetic element in his work. He was to develop the theme repeatedly over the ensuing years and his liquid kinetic constructions cumminated in a series of large- scale fountains that made use of ever-increasingly complex mechanics including the use of multi-jets with extended projectile ranges. The use of water introduced a new contrasting aspect to his metallic creations. Water, the most essential ingredient of life, allows Tinguely to go beyond a mere collage of incongruous artefacts to inject personality into his machines. Fontaine No.2 is constructed from scrap iron and discarded components - objects trouv‚s. These familiar elements when set into cranky, quirky action are now set against the graceful arcs and movement of water. In his fountains Tinguely deliberately contrasts the palpable soullessness of man-made objects with the naturally animated ephemeral forms and loosely defined spaces created by the moving jets of water. In this way a lifeless pile of junk is animated and transformed into a wonderful anthropomphic personality. In this creation, junk and water are working symbiotically to perform "gestural gimmicks". ( Jean Tinguely, C.Bischofberger Catalogue raisonn‚ Sculptures and Reliefs 1954 - 1968, Zurich 1982). The present work exemplifies how the humorous and mesmerising energy of Tinguely's fountains veil another message. "They are beyond the framework of all laws and every system...these machn*e are load with freedom this art is a latent assault on the established order." Denise Ren‚ observed.( Le Mouvement, Paris 1955, Exh. cat., Ed. Denise Ren‚, Paris 1975). In this respect, Fontaine No. 2 reflects Tinguely's anarchist leanings. These were however soon overtaken by his insatiable quest to create sculptural forms using what he considered to be the only permanents in life; "movement" and "change". Tinguely exploited the machine to demonstrate properties not normally associated with it, and in doing so became obsessed with motion. As he told Calvin Tomkins, "Life is movement. Everything transforms itself ceaselessly, and to try and stop it, to try and check life in mid-flight and recapture it in the form of a work of art, a sculpture or a painting, seems to me a mockery of the intensity of life I want only to involve myself in the moving object that forever transforms itself." ( C.Tomkins, The Bride and the Batchelors, Five Masters of the Avant Garde, Middlesex 1968).