Jean Tinguely's clay mixing machines

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Jean Tinguely's clay mixing machines are kinetic and noisy machine sculptures with which the Swiss artist Tinguely became known in the international art scene in the 1960s and revolutionized the genre issues with regard to sculpture in art history.

prehistory

Jean Tinguely gained international attention as early as the 1960s with his spectacular, kinetic, loudly clanking machine sculptures, which after a short time self-destructed in front of the audience. With these actions and the creation of further machine sculptures and clay mixing machines, he tied - consciously or unconsciously - to the basic ideas of the Futurists and Dadaists of the 1910s and 1920s. In accordance with Luigi Russolo's postulate that noises such as the humming of the engines, the knocking of the pistons, the screeching of the sawmills as a maxim in the further development of works of art, he began with his "Meta-Matics" and "Méta- Harmonies »create his main work. The influence of the Dadaists ' group of artists founded in Zurich , who questioned all previous art, should also be mentioned. Le terrain sur lequel vont s'exercer les happening, la performance, les actions, a été bien préparé par Dada et aussi, antérieurement, par le futurisme, la poésie phonétique de Filip T. Marinetti , la musique bruitiste de Luigi Russolo.

The Dada artist Duchamp built since 1920 z. B. the so-called rotor reliefs with moving disks, Moholy-Nagy around 1930 a kinetic light machine that included the rhythmic movement of the machine. Naum Gabo created a rhythmically moving column of light in 1923. Dada, which later advanced to an international movement, was also based on the legacies of a war, namely that of the First World War.

The rediscovery of the left and right of the Rhine in the 1950s had a major impact on the art scene in both Paris and Düsseldorf. This art-critical and revolutionary approach by Tinguely with regard to the development of sculpture and the concept of art must also be read in the context of the post-war history of the Second World War. His playful, anarchic view of art changed the view of art permanently. Néanmoins, avec ses machines créés pour ne vivre que les temps de leur autodestructions, Tinguely a inscrit une part de son travail dans ce champs. He was interested in the absurdity and irony of the Dadaists and Surrealists, the existence and non-existence of the existentialists and the radicals of the Russian avant-garde.

His work is divided into various series or types of machine sculptures. Automatic drawing machines, auto-destructive machine sculptures, room installations, the four large “Méta harmonies” and the playful fountains that he later developed with Niki de Saint Phalle , to name just a few.

Development history

Artistic environment

Born in 1925 in Friborg, Switzerland, the artist attended the Basel School of Applied Arts in 1941/1945 . In 1952 he moved to Paris and took part in numerous international happenings . He joined the Nouveau Réalisme group. His interest in sound and movement was already evident in his early works. He became famous in the art scene with his Méta-Matics fantasy machines, which often worked with the principle of chance.

The accumulation of objets trouvés in various spatial arrangements united the artists of the New Realists with their sculptures, as in Arman , Spoerri , César , Chamberlain and Tinguely. The kinetic component, the movement of these apparatuses, was brought into art in the 1920s by the Russian avant-gardists and the Dadaists and also by Marcel Duchamp or Man Ray and Naum Gabo , and then by Alexander Calder and the artist group ZERO in the 1950s . The wheel, as a symbol of movement, has been the focus of their ideas for the Russian avant-garde as well as Picasso and Duchamp since the beginning of the last century, also in Lissitzki's essay Wheel, Propeller and the following , which he wrote in 1924 in the ABC of the Wolkenbügel project published.

In Paris in the 1950s, Tinguely was influenced by the Parisian art scene. He collected scrap pieces, which he put together into moving machines that made no sense. The demonstration of idling was to be understood as a criticism of the automation processes in the industry. The aestheticization of everyday objects, which was also postulated by pop art, and the collection of scrap pieces that were combined in various ways to form assemblages, was created by the artist Arman and other colleagues in Paris in the post-war years. With the welding machine, Tinguely created the room installations "Dylaby" Dynamic Labyrinth in the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum in 1962. These anti-machines from Tinguely were in part extremely noisy in their functionless absurdity. In March 1960, for example, a machine happening took place in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at which he presented a sculpture powered by several motors. It consisted of metal parts, a piano, a radio and various items of daily use, which destroyed itself within a very short time with a loud roar. That was the first auto-destructive work of art. The liberation from the conventional art scene was staged with provocative and loud actions and expansive installations of his noisy machines.

Picasso's sculpture bull's head from 1943, consisting of a bicycle saddle and handlebar as an assembly object for found objects, claims to reinterpret everyday objects in a new context. The Swiss Robert Müller, who lives in Paris, was one of the first, along with César, to assemble scrap finds into so-called scrap sculptures. This included various device finds and bicycle parts that were assembled together in a completely different way, whereby the pedal mechanism enabled movement. Daniel Spoerri also devised kinetic objects, as did Tinguely, who already in his youth experimented with water-powered can drum machines made from wire constructions and waste sculptures, composed found objects and metal parts to make kinetic objects.

Reliefs, machines, sculptures, clay mixing machines and auto-destructive installations

Almost all of his works produce more or less noises and tones. In 1955 he made the motorized sound reliefs Relief méta-mécanique sonore I and II with various found objects, wires, bottles, tin funnels and other objects. 1957–1959 he created Mes étoiles - Concert pur sept peintures . Tinguely's meta-music performance in 1958 at the Iris Clert gallery in Paris caused a scandal among conservative art audiences. The first machine sculptures, the “méta-mecaniques”, were also created in Paris. From the mid-1950s he devised drawing machines, the “méta-matiques”, which could be set in motion by pressing a pedal and a jiggling pen made drawings. He created other devices assembled from scrap, to which he added feather dusters, springs, rubber hoses, clamps, etc. These were often driven by electric motors and the shaking and twitching movements were accompanied by a loud roar.

The fascination for metal and machine noises must also be seen against the background of the spreading machine work processes. Tinguely's creative approach of creating non-functional devices that produced noisy noises when they moved or destroyed themselves, harbors explosive ideas when he named his noisy machines and happenings with titles like the end of the world . Another auto-destructive installation, Étude pour une fin dumonde No.1, took place at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark in 1961 .

Between 1978 and 1985 the “Méta-Harmonie” clay mixers, as he called them, were created. There are large, motor-driven gear trains in steel frames with a number of musical and percussion instruments. With their movement and their din, they offer a haunting acoustic visual art experience. He wrote about this: "My devices do not make music, my devices use tones, I play with the tones, I sometimes build clay mixers that mix the tones, I let the tones go, I give them freedom". In 1978 the Méta-Harmonie I was created , which is now in the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien . It consists of a three-part iron frame and various metal bars, a gear train, three electric motors and numerous sound-generating objects and various parts of agricultural machinery and cars, as well as a garden gnome. Their dimensions are 290 × 600 × 150 cm.

In 1979 he built Méta-Harmonie II , which is on permanent loan from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation in Basel. It also consists of a three-part iron frame on castors, door hinges, meat hooks, gears and three electric motors, various belts, a wheel, gongs, cowbells, triangle, harmonium, frying pan and other sound instruments. It measures 380 × 690 × 160 cm.

Another sculpture, Klamauk from 1979, was a tractor equipped with percussion instruments, rubber hammers, mini golf clubs, 11 pools, 11 cowbells, metal barrels and a black pot for a small fireworks display, which triggered a percussive sound experience when it was used. Their dimensions are 315 × 660 × 315 cm. It is a gift from Niki de Saint Phalle to the Tinguely Museum in Basel.

He produced the pandemonium No.1 - Méta-Harmonie III in 1984 for a Japanese chain of department stores. Today it is in the Sezon Museum of Modern Art in Karuizawa . It consists of a four-part iron frame on castors, various belts and 52 electric motors, musical instruments and noise-generating objects, various lamps and light sources as well as skull bones, a racing car radiator, an airplane wing tip, a King Kong rubber figure, etc. It measures 350 × 780 × 300 cm .

Fatamorgana-Méta-Harmonie IV from 1985 is in the Tinguely Museum Basel. It is again a three-part iron frame on castors with various metal rods and straps, as well as 15 electric motors. It is also equipped with musical instruments and sound-producing objects. It has the dimensions 420 × 1250 × 220 cm.

These four large clay mixing machines, which Tinguely built between 1979 and 1985, differ greatly in sound from one another. Two of them remained in Switzerland, but all four were exhibited together in one room in the 2016 exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel under the title “Music Machines / Machine Music”.

He created other noise-generating machine sculptures , such as a monumental Méta-Harmonie without number from 1980 or the multi-part sculpture arrangement on the platform next to the Center Pompidou in Paris from 1984 with the title Inferno . A Méta-Maxi created in 1986 belongs to the Daimler Art Collection in Stuttgart. In 1987 he created a sculpture entitled Méta-Maxi-Maxi Utopia .

In the Fonoteca, the Swiss National Sound Archives , there is a sound document consisting of a ten-part interview with Jean Tinguely at different recording locations and times by the art critic Pierre Descargues, Entretiens avec Pierre Descargues z. B. Paris 1983, Inauguration de la Fontaine Igor Stravinski , Venice 1987 "Retrospective Jean Tinguely" at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Paris 1988 "Exposition Tinguely, Musee National D'Art Moderne Center Georges Pompidou". Descargues calls him a permanent rebel there , and he himself said: je cherche la form plastique qui sera très transformable. Descargues also speaks of the philosopher Tinguely, who strove for a rehabilitation of sculpture and that viewing his work would be like a path through the history of philosophy. (CD)

literature

  • Karin Thomas, Gerd de Vries: Artist Lexicon from 1945 to the present . DuMont, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-7701-0996-1 , p. 314, 315 .
  • Karin Thomas: Specialized dictionary on the art of the 20th century . DuMont, Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-7701-0622-9 .
  • Willy Rotzler: Object Art from Duchamp to the Present . DuMont, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-7701-0838-8 .
  • Wireless imagination . Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-89401-121-1 .
  • Ulrich Reisser, Norbert Wolf: Art Epochs 20th Century II . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018179-8 .
  • Sibylle Omlin: Le «performatif» . Edited by Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909622-05-4 .
  • Museum Tinguely Basel (Ed.): Music machines / machine music . Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7356-0269-5 .
  • Kai-Uwe Hemken: El Lissitzky revolution and avant-garde . DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-2613-0 .

media

  • Pierre Descargues, Jean Tinguely: Jean Tinguely. Entretiens avec Pierres Descargues . Ed .: Musee Jean Tinguely. Basel 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wireless Imagination . Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-89401-121-1 .
  2. ^ Sibylle Omlin: Le «performatif» . Edited by Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909622-05-4 .
  3. ↑ Karin Thomas: Subject dictionary on the art of the 20th century . Dumont, Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-7701-0622-9 .
  4. ^ Sibylle Omlin: Le «performatif» . Edited by Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909622-05-4 .
  5. ↑ Pierre Descargues, Jean Tinguely: Jean Tinguely. Entretiens avec Pierres Descargues . Ed .: Musee Jean Tinguely. Basel 2001.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Reisser, Norbert Wolf: Art Epochs 20th Century II . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018179-8 .
  7. ↑ Karin Thomas, Gerd de Vries: Artist Lexicon from 1945 to the present . Dumont, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-7701-0996-1 , p. 314, 315 .
  8. ↑ Karin Thomas, Gerd de Vries: Artist Lexicon from 1945 to the present . Dumont, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-7701-0996-1 , p. 314, 315 .
  9. ↑ Karin Thomas: Subject dictionary on the art of the 20th century . Dumont, Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-7701-0622-9 .
  10. ^ Kai-Uwe Hemken: El Lissitzky Revolution and Avant-garde . DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-2613-0 .
  11. ↑ Ulrich Reisser, Norbert Wolf: Art Epochs 20th Century II . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018179-8 .
  12. ↑ Karin Thomas: Subject dictionary on the art of the 20th century . Dumont, Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-7701-0622-9 .
  13. ↑ Willy Rotzler: Object art from Duchamp to the present . Dumont, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-7701-0838-8 .
  14. ↑ Willy Rotzler: Object art from Duchamp to the present . Dumont, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-7701-0838-8 .
  15. ↑ Willy Rotzler: Object art from Duchamp to the present . DuMont, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-7701-0838-8 .
  16. ^ Museum Tinguely Basel, Ed .: Music machines / machine music . Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7356-0269-5 .
  17. ^ Museum Tinguely Basel, Ed .: Music machines / machine music . Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7356-0269-5 .
  18. ^ Museum Tinguely Basel, Ed .: Music machines / machine music . Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7356-0269-5 .
  19. ^ Museum Tinguely Basel, Ed .: Music machines / machine music . Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-7356-0269-5 .
  20. ↑ Pierre Descargues, Jean Tinguely: Jean Tinguely. Entretiens avec Pierres Descargues . Ed .: Musee Jean Tinguely. Basel 2001.