Tinguely, Jean

Tinguely, Jean (zhäN tăNglē`), 1925–91, Swiss artist. Tinguely is best known for his "metamechanics," electromechanical sculptures that perform tasks such as painting or playing music. Most celebrated of these works is Homage to New York (1959), a machine that destroyed itself when set into motion.

---

Tinguely, Jean

(born May 22, 1925, Fribourg, Switz.—died Aug. 30, 1991, Bern) Swiss sculptor and experimental artist. As a student of painting and sculpture in Basel, he showed interest in movement as an artistic medium, and in 1953 he moved to Paris and began to construct sophisticated kinetic sculptures. He created a sensation when his self-destroying Homage to New York (1960) failed to self-destruct at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; his Study for an End of the World (1961) detonated successfully. Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society and expressed his conviction that the essence of both life and art consists of continuous change, movement, and instability.