JEAN TINGUELY (John), his quotes on kinetic sculpture & machine art; + biography facts; French artist
Jean Tinguely (John, 1925 – 1991), his quotes on kinetic sculpture art & biography facts. The famous Swiss-born French sculptor, created running machine sculptures (metamatic art) and moving fountains, in cooperation with his wife, woman sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle (location, next to museum Pompidou in Paris). Tinguely’s artist quotes are notes to his creation of kinetic machine art, which he constructed from discarded industrial components. At the bottom more biography facts on the artist Jean Tinguely. – the editor.
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one object of ‘Tinguely Fountain’ in Basel |
Jean Tinguely (John), his quotes on kinetic machine art – French artist, cooperating & married with Niki de Saint Phalle
– Static, static, static. Be static! Movement is static! Movement is static because it is the only immutable thing – the only certainty, the only thing that is unchangeable. The only certainty is that movement, change, and metamorphosis exist. That is why movement is static.
* Jean Tinguely (John), source of artist quotes on kinetic sculpture art: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119. (Swiss-born French sculptor, famous for his moving machine art, metamatic art; biography at the bottom)
– So-called immobile objects exist only in movement. Immobile, certain, and permanent things, ideas, works and beliefs change, transform, and disintegrate. Immobile objects are snapshots of a movement whose existence we refuse to accept, because we ourselves are only an instant in the great movement. Movement is the only static, final, permanent, and certain thing. Static means transformation. Let us be static together with movement. Move statically! Be static! Be movement! Believe in movement’s static quality. Believe in change. Do not hold onto anything. Change! Do not pinpoint anything! Everything about us is movement. Everything around us is change. Believe in movement’s static quality. Be static.
* Jean Tinguely (John), source of his quote on moving kinetic sculpture: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119.
– Today we can no longer believe in permanent laws, defined religions, durable architecture, or eternal kingdoms. Immutability does not exist. All is movement. All is static. We are afraid of movement because it stands for decomposition – because we see our disintegration in movement. Continuous static movement marches on! It cannot be stopped. We are fooling ourselves if we close out eyes and refuse to recognize the change. Actually, decomposition begins only when we try to prevent it. Decomposition dos not exist! Decomposition does not exist! Decomposition is a state envisaged only by us, because we do not want it to exist, and because we dread it.
* Jean Tinguely (John), artist quotes on kinetic sculpture and static movements: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119.
– There is no death! Death only exists for those who cannot accept evolution. Everything changes. Death is a transition form movement to movement. Death is static. Death is movement. Death is static. Death is movement.
* Jean Tinguely (John), source of quote on art & life: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119.
– Be yourself by growing above yourself. Don’t stand in your own way. Let us change with, and not against, movement. Then we shall be static and shall not decompose. Then there will be neither good nor evil, neither beauty nor unsightliness, neither truth nor falsehood. Conceptions are fixations. If we stand still, we block our own path, and we are confronted with our own controversies.
* Jean Tinguely (John), source of artist quote on bing an artist and human in life: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119.
– Let us contradict ourselves because we change. Let us be good and evil, true and false, beautiful and loathsome. We are all of these anyway. Let us admit it by accepting movement. Let us be static! Be static!
* Jean Tinguely (John), artist quote on bing a human artist: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119.
– We are still very much annoyed by out-of-date notions of time. Please, would you throw away your watches! At least toss aside the minutes and hours. Obviously we all realize that we are not everlasting. Our fear of death has inspired the creation of beautiful works of art. And this was a fine thing, too. However, our only eternal possession will be change.
* Jean Tinguely (John), source of artist quote: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119.
– To attempt to hold fast an instant id doubtful.
To bind an emotion is unthinkable.
To petrify love is impossible.
It is beautiful to be transitory.
How lovely it is not to have to live forever.
Luckily there is nothing good and nothing evil.
* Jean Tinguely (John), source of artist quotes on good and evil in life and art: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 120.
– Time is movement and cannot be checked. Time passes us and rushes on, and we remind behind, old and crumbled. But we are juvenated again and again by static and continuous movement. Let us be transformed! Let us be static! Let us be against stagnation and for static! .
* Jean Tinguely, source of artist quotes on time and movement in art & life: untitled Statement, ‘ZERO 3′ (1961), reprinted in ‘Zero’, ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 120. (Swiss-born French sculptor, famous for his moving machine art, metamatic art; biography at the bottom)
Jean Tinguely; biography facts of the artist of sculpture machine art: kinetic art / meta-mechanic
The Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely was born in Fribourg on 22 May 1925. After going to school in Basle, he began an apprenticeship as a shop-window decorator in a department store in 1940. He then studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basle from 1941 to 1945, a period during which he discovered the art of Schwitters and Klee as well as becoming an enthusiastic fan of the Bauhaus.
Tinguely began experimenting with movement in space in 1944 with his machine-like sculptures by equipping them with electric motors and making them spin around at high speed. He moved to Paris in 1951, where he participated in Robert Rauschenberg’s international happenings and associated with the casual artist group “Nouveaux Réalistes”, exhibiting works in their exhibitions. He had his first one-man exhibition three years later, in 1954, at the Galerie Arnaux. Tinguely’s fantasy machines with pre-programmed elements of chance, the so-called “Métamatics”, are quite spectacular. They are machines producing drawings, or self-destructive machines. His welded iron constructions represent ironic attacks on the purpose of the era of technology.
Jean Tinguely exhibited works at the Biennale in Paris in 1959 and associated himself with the group “ZERO”. The artist’s international fame came around the mid-1960s, if not earlier. He showed works at the “documenta” 3, 4 and 6 in Kassel between 1964 and 1977.
Jean Tinguely is famous for his sculptural machine art – kinetic art – in a late Dada tradition; known officially as metamechanics. To build his machine sculptures Tinguely collected discarded, industrial metal materials and parts to construct his moving, rotating machines.
Tinguely grew up in Basel, but moved to France as a young adult to pursue a career in art. He belonged to the Parisian avantgarde in the mid-twentieth century and was one of the artists who signed the ‘New Realist’s’ manifesto (the French Nouveau Réalisme) in 1960. He had expositions with Yves Klein (read Klein’s biography, fh)
Tinguely married the woman artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, a close friend of his, in 1961. Together, they installed the climbable female sculpture “Hon” at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 1966. In the same year he participated in the exhibition “The Machine” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
One year later he was present at the World Exhibition in Montreal. His “Machines” were once again shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1968 in the exhibition “Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage”. Tinguely had close friends in the world of auto racing; he was strongly fascinated by the temporarily aspect of life itself, which he expressed in his kinetic machine art.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago organised a retrospective exhibition in the same year and there was a large touring retrospective exhibition in 1972-73 which started at the Kunsthalle in Basle. Tinguely never ceased working, even in his old age. In 1980-81 he created the fountain “La Fontaine Stravinsky” in Paris together with Niki de Saint Phalle. During the 1980s Tinguely realised several major projects, et al. exhibitions, sculpture groups and fountains. Jean Tinguely died in Bern on 20 August 1991.
Jean Tinguely (John); art links for his biography and machine art images of kinetic / meta-mechanic art
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* website, museum Jean Tinguely
