Lot 3423 - A213 Post-War & Contemporary - jeudi, 26. juin 2025, 15h00
JEAN TINGUELY
(Fribourg 1925–1991 Bern)
Musical Baby Machine. 1991.
Iron sculpture with electrical installation, coloured light bulbs, spotlights, rollers, wooden elements, children's toys, drive belts, cable ties and adhesive tape.
200 × 160 × 130 cm.
Provenance:
- Dubinsky Fine Arts, Zurich.
- Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above gallery in 1994.
Jean Tinguely was a key figure in Kinetic Art and one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century. His works combine movement, sound and technology to create a dynamic understanding of art that radically questions traditional notions of sculpture. Influenced by Fluxus and Happenings, Tinguely conceived works of art as a process rather than as completed objects. His sculptures vividly reflect this understanding of art: they appear to be alive - jolting, screeching, turning and thereby addressing the transformation, instability and transience of the artwork itself. However, his works are more than mere machines - they are performative agents that combine art, technology and a critique of modernity. They cause the viewer to be part of an ephemeral process and scrutinise the relationship between man, machine and technology, a topic that is ever present in current debates.
After studying in Basel, Tinguely moved to Paris in the 1950s, where he exchanged ideas with members of the avant-garde and developed his first mechanical sculptures. The ‘Méta-Matics’, which he produced from 1959 onwards, are one of his key early series: electrically operated machines made from scrap parts that autonomously generate drawings. Works such as ‘Hommage à New York’ (1960), a self-destructing sculpture, also demonstrate the idea of self-annihilation and its irony as central aspects of his work. Tinguely saw himself as a humorous and subversive instigator of a dynamic, process-based art that points beyond the object and places the artistic act itself at the centre.
The same applies to the works being offered here at auction: The ‘Musical Baby Machine’ (lot 3423) creates the impression of an early android and, with its glowing light bulbs and integrated children's toy, looks as though it has been designed to care for and accompany small children. The more compact plastic ‘Bibip’ (lot 3430) is similarly playful, but more demanding in sensory terms: loosely based on the motto ‘Nomen est Omen’, the work features two electric-powered plastic horns that give the sculpture’s title their best shot. The third electric-powered sculpture ‘Viva Niki’ (lot 3428) from 1989 is an impressive collaboration between Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle and bears witness to their close personal and professional relationship. In this work, Tinguely's kinetic sculpture meets a Nana multiple by Saint Phalle and merges into a unique work that combines technology, physicality and social critique in an unusual way. In addition to these three sculptural works, two drawings will also be offered in the summer auction, lots 3426 and 3427, as well as a painting (lot 3462) which illustrate to perfection another dimension of Jean Tinguely's oeuvre, namely his colourful two-dimensional works produced on a variety of support materials.
After studying in Basel, Tinguely moved to Paris in the 1950s, where he exchanged ideas with members of the avant-garde and developed his first mechanical sculptures. The ‘Méta-Matics’, which he produced from 1959 onwards, are one of his key early series: electrically operated machines made from scrap parts that autonomously generate drawings. Works such as ‘Hommage à New York’ (1960), a self-destructing sculpture, also demonstrate the idea of self-annihilation and its irony as central aspects of his work. Tinguely saw himself as a humorous and subversive instigator of a dynamic, process-based art that points beyond the object and places the artistic act itself at the centre.
The same applies to the works being offered here at auction: The ‘Musical Baby Machine’ (lot 3423) creates the impression of an early android and, with its glowing light bulbs and integrated children's toy, looks as though it has been designed to care for and accompany small children. The more compact plastic ‘Bibip’ (lot 3430) is similarly playful, but more demanding in sensory terms: loosely based on the motto ‘Nomen est Omen’, the work features two electric-powered plastic horns that give the sculpture’s title their best shot. The third electric-powered sculpture ‘Viva Niki’ (lot 3428) from 1989 is an impressive collaboration between Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle and bears witness to their close personal and professional relationship. In this work, Tinguely's kinetic sculpture meets a Nana multiple by Saint Phalle and merges into a unique work that combines technology, physicality and social critique in an unusual way. In addition to these three sculptural works, two drawings will also be offered in the summer auction, lots 3426 and 3427, as well as a painting (lot 3462) which illustrate to perfection another dimension of Jean Tinguely's oeuvre, namely his colourful two-dimensional works produced on a variety of support materials.
CHF 60 000 / 90 000 | (€ 61 860 / 92 780)
Vendu pour CHF 137 500 (frais inclus)