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Jean Tinguely
Hippopotamus
1991
Material / technique: Tar barrel on wheels, scrap iron, motorcycle parts, hoses, hippopotamus skull
Size: 200 x 310 x 200 cm
Inv.Number: 11391
Catalog: Bischofberger 1003
Tinguely built one of his last sculptures in 1991, using a tar barrel as base. He called it “Hippopotamus” because of the skull that dominates the work, at once a memento mori and a comical touch. Through the placement of the skull, the vehicle becomes a representation of the animal, which in identical repeated movements opens and closes its jaws. The absurdity of the strange and gigantic hood ornament is also a symbol of helplessness and perplexity at the apparition of death.
Pictures in our Collection
The following applies for uses of pictures in relation to our collection:
Museum Tinguely does not own any copyright in works by Jean Tinguely or other artists in the collection. The clarification of these rights and payment in respect of them is a matter for the applicant. In Switzerland, the collecting society responsible for this is ProLitteris, Zurich (link website: www.prolitteris.ch). Museum Tinguely undertakes no liability for third party claims arising from infringement of copyright and personality rights.
Collection of Museum Tinguely
Works and work groups belonging to all phases of Jean Tinguely’s career are to be found in the museum's collection. Along with selected temporary loans, they afford the visitor an extensive view of the artist’s career. Apart from sculptures, the collection furthermore comprises a large number of drawings and letter-drawings, documents, exhibition posters, catalogues and documentation such as photographs. In the measure of the possible all the exhibits are accessible to the public and regularly shown, be it in the permanent collection or as loans to exhibitions worldwide.
The museum’s collections are the result of a generous donation by the artist’s widow, Niki de Saint Phalle, made on the occasion of its foundation, a donation of works from the Roche collection, as well as several other gifts and acquisitions.
>> Biography of Jean Tinguely
>> History of the collection