Jean Tinguely | | atractivoquenobello

He is not a mere machine artist, Roland Wetzel wants to clarify that, Tinguely is so much more….

After our quick encounter last month with Jean Tinguely’s recently finished Méta-Matics, Méta-Reliefs expo @ Gallerie Vallois, we were left wondering the endless possibilities and shapes his works could adopt… and it magically turns out that the Basel-based Museum Tinguely just opened their most ambitious retrospective of the Swiss artist a few days ago…

16 years after the museum opened its doors, their collection has grown considerably and it seemed likemaking an updated museum catalogue was an urgent imperative… much like organising an exhibition of the Tinguely Collection, the first for a considerable time, spread over the entire display area. 20 years after Tinguely’s death, the new presentation will also reflect a revised view of his oeuvre.

The nice people @Vernissage TV went there a couple of weeks ago to talk with the museum director Roland Wetzel and to take a few photos… (more info on the expo this way).

“Meet Jean Tinguely, who might be an artist, an inventor or a philosopher…depending on how you look at his masterpieces.” (Universal Newsreel, 1960)

Le Frigo (open) - 1960 © André Morin (image via Galerie Vallois) — Le Frigo (open) – 1960 © André Morin (image via Galerie Vallois)

Yes, Jean Tinguely does have a wonderful name when pronounced à l’anglaise. But it’s not just his name that’s currently tickling the fancy of Nouveau Réalisme art fans. Eleven of his pieces, some of which have never been exhibited before, are being shown at the Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois Gallery in the artists’ quarter of Saint Germain des Près in Paris. Were Tinguely still with us (he passed away over twenty years ago) he would surely have appreciated the location, only a few steps away from the Arnaud Lefebvre Gallery, the host of his very first solo exhibition.

The collection, divided into “Méta-Reliefs” and “Méta-Matics”, was created between 1955 and 1961. Here, we can clearly see the fascination with movement, space and fantasy that made Tinguely such an important member of the avant-garde arts scene in the mid-twentieth century.

Continue reading A Tinguely feeling