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Jean Tinguely
Spirale (Rörelse)
1965
Material / technique: Iron, wood, electric motor, all painted black
Size: 174 x 80 x 70 cm
Inv.Number: 11196
Catalog: Bischofberger 0360
Creditline: Museum Tinguely, Basel
In the mid-1960s Jean Tinguely’s work began to evince significant changes. The forms of his new sculptures became more clear-cut and compact. Instead of the chaotic-looking assemblages of the past, he created for a March 1963 exhibition at the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles works that were uniformly painted in matte black. Tinguely still worked here with “objets trouvés“ and scrap iron, but the coat of black paint has the effect of neutralising their junkyard origins and diverse material qualities. The elegant black finish gives Tinguely’s works a formal unity, and the movements of his sculptures are also more refined and controlled. Of these developments, the artist said in an interview with Alain Jouffroy in 1966: “The black colour guarantees the formal homogeneity of the machine. It is a return to sculpture – I think – almost to conventional sculpture ... in their physical aspect. Of course, the movement they continually create anew remains a phenomenon that is not as classic as the sculpture ...” In the latter half of the 1960s, clearly defined black circles and spirals come together to form machine sculptures whose silhouettes are effectively dissolved by their rapid movements before a white ground into virtual volumes. The visual irritation and the resulting appeal of these works are deliberately intended by the artist in works such as “Spirale (Rörelse)” or “Santana”.
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