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’’Best Wishes Jeannot!’’ Tinguely’s letter collages
“I draw a huge amount of stuff, just as we doodle while on the phone. At the same time I systematically transform this kind of drawing into messages to my friends, into letters, and such like.”
Movement, chance and the use of everyday materials define the whole of Tinguely’s oeuvre. This is reflected not only in his kinetic sculptures, but also in his works on paper, in which we encounter him as an inventive draughtsman, collage artist and communicator.
Tinguely sent hundreds of illustrated messages to his friends and collaborators in arts and culture all over the world. This correspondence, composed wherever he happened to be – in a studio, on the floor, at the kitchen table, on the telephone, in a restaurant, in a museum or gallery, even on an aeroplane or in the bus – is remarkable for its unbounded inventiveness. These are not letters in the conventional sense; they are rather colourful picture letters, letter drawings, doodles, and telephone drawings along with collages and objects. Once asked what writing and drawing letters meant to him, Tinguely responded: “It is contact: anti-isolationist, it is about – results from – the communication of thoughts. I think, feel [with] the addressee, am with my ‘writing’ partner.”
Dominik Gysin recording the letters by Jean Tinguely in the studio of Audiokonzept in Bern, 2021
Photo: © Samuel Baur, Audiokonzept, Bern
