Frieze Masters 2014 Highlights Pack by Hauser & Wirth

Jean

Tinguely Early Works Frieze Masters 15 – 19 October 2014 Booth B5 Regent’s Park London

Frieze Masters 2014 At Frieze Masters 2014, Hauser & Wirth will present an outstanding group of early works by the Swiss artist, Jean Tinguely (1925-1991). Tinguely is best known for his kinetic and mechanically-animated sculptures that explore the aesthetics of movement. His sculptural machines were built of found or familiar objects and rudimentary parts, combining kineticism with wit and intelligence.

When Tinguely created his first mature works in 1954, the Dada-influenced artist made a systematic attack on the traditional criteria of the art world – the emphasis on the unique work and its conventional presentation. In addition to calling into question the autonomy and authority of the artist, Tinguely’s sculptures were something of a caricature of the utilitarian, mechanical world, demonstrating Tinguely’s critical posture towards technological optimism. Like the Futurists, movement was always the central focus of Tinguely’s work, but with a crucial difference: Tinguely posed the question, movement to what end? By formalising the process of creation as a mechanical action, Tinguely also evinced a highly imaginative reaction against the dominant expressionist trends of the 1950s Action painting and Art Informel. On view will be important works from the 1950s and the early 1960s, including one of his famous drawing machines and the major early masterpiece, ‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’ (1960).

Installation view, Kunsthalle Bern, ‘Norbert Kricke, Bernhard Luginbühl, Jean Tinguely’, Bern/CH, September 24 - October 30, 1960. ‘La Jalousie I’ (back wall) and ‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’ (far right) are visible.

Installation view, Kunstmuseum Basel, ‘Tinguely im Kunstmuseum Basel’, Basel/CH, November 27, 1976 - March 6, 1977. The Kunstmuseum’s Director, Franz Meyer, Jean Tinguely and Rico Weber (Tinguely’s studio assistant) stand in front of ‘La Jalousie I’ (far right).

‘Blanc sur Blanc’ (1955) ‘Blanc sur Blanc’ (1955) is an important early example of Tinguely’s famous mechanised reliefs, which he began in 1954 when he arrived in Paris. In this series, Tinguely drew formally on the paintings of the Russian father of Geometrical Abstraction, Kazimir Malevich, while extending them into the dimension of time. Since the mechanism is located on the rear side and is invisible to the viewer, the lively character of the work only reveals itself once the electricity has been turned on. The movement of the various parts was based on a system of asynchronous gears, which results in each part moving at a different speed. The individual components of the picture constantly assume new positions and consequently produce ever-new combinations. What interested Tinguely was not just the movement itself but an image that was constantly modifying itself. ‘Blanc sur Blanc’ is one of the few monochrome reliefs in Tinguely’s oeuvre, and as such draws interesting comparisons to the static monochrome canvases that his contemporary, Yves Klein, was producing in Paris at the same time.

‘I present “paintings”; the machine is my “canvas”’

– Jean Tinguely

Installation view, Kunsthalle Bern, ‘Norbert Kricke, Bernhard Luginbühl, Jean Tinguely’, Bern/CH, September 24 - October 30, 1960. The artist stands next to his ‘La Jalousie I’.

Installation view, Kunsthalle Basel, ‘Maschinen Plastik. Jean Tinguely’, Basel/CH, January 22 - February 27, 1972. ‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’ is in the foreground.

Installation view, Kunstmuseum Basel, ‘Tinguely im Kunstmuseum Basel’, Basel/CH, November 27, 1976 - March 6, 1977. The gallerist Felix Handschin and Dieter Roth converse near Tinguely’s ‘La Jalousie I’ (left, through doorway).

‘Métamatic’ (1959 – 1960)

‘Métamatic’ (1959 – 1960), one of Tinguely’s celebrated and rare drawing machines, displays Tinguely’s trademark wit and conceptual rigour. It critiques central tenets of art history, namely the role of the artist’s hand in the production of an artwork and the importance of an object’s unique status. Created in Paris as Abstract Expressionism was on the ascendant, this machine allows one to produce an abstract drawing automatically. Within this small series of Métamatic machines, this is the only version that employs a stamp to create the abstract drawings, rather than a pen. Other works from the series are housed in the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompiou, Paris; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Jean Tinguely, late 1958.

‘Métamatic’ (1959 – 1960)

‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’ (1960) The medieval ‘Zytglogge’ bell tower in Bern’s Old City is a landmark of the city. It was built circa 1218 and became more elaborate over the years, eventually incorporating an astronomical clock and mechanical figurines. When Tinguely held his first Swiss exhibition in Bern in 1960, after many years of work in Paris, he gave his exhibited tower sculpture the addendum title ‘Berner Zytglogge’. The sculpture’s movement was designed by Tinguely to mimic the somewhat jerky mechanism and functionality of a clock. The incorporated wheels, partly taken from bicycles, make reference to the face of a clock and to a clockwork mechanism, while the cart on the top of the tower continually moves back and forth, mimicking the hourly show put on by the Zytglogge’s figurines. The scruffy, slightly bent tower structure made of scrap metal and found objects rattles and operates despite the delicacy of its component parts, the busy operation conveying fun, humour and surprising resilience. This major sculpture has not been publicly exhibited for sixteen years and represents Tinguely at the height of his compositional powers.

Installation view, Kunsthaus Zürich, ‘Jean Tinguely’, Zurich/CH, June 11 - August 8, 1982. ‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’ is seen in the center.

The artist stands to the left of ‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’, looking up at his work. Daniel Spoerri stands in the foreground closest to the camera, facing the sculpture. Installation view, Kunsthalle Bern, ‘Norbert Kricke, Bernhard Luginbühl, Jean Tinguely’, Bern/CH, September 24 - October 30, 1960.

‘La Jalousie I’ (1960) 22

‘La Jalousie I’ (1960) is a beaded curtain that shimmies into noisy action when activated by the viewer. The electric motor that powers the work imbues the curtain with a furious, but curiously sensuous motion, calling to mind either the sashaying grass skirts of Hawaiian dancers or a person trembling with jealousy. The title of this sculpture is an untranslatable pun on the French word ‘jalousie’, which means both ‘jealousy’ as well as a ‘blind or beaded curtain’. The second, near identical version of this work, ‘La Jalousie II’ (1960), has been in the permanent collection of the National Galleries of Scotland since 1984.

Installation view, Kunsthaus Zürich, ‘Jean Tinguely’, Zurich/CH, June 11 - August 8, 1982, with the near-identical ‘La Jalousie II’ (1961), collection National Galleries of Scotland.

‘Baluba No. 5’ (1961) Jean Tinguely produced the Baluba series between 1961 and 1962, incorporating fine, delicate elements and materials to produce a lively, joyous group of totem-like ‘creatures’ that ‘dance’ with vaguely human mannerisms. Tinguely named these works in honour of Patrice Lumumba, a member of the Baluba tribe who became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo until his assassination in 1961. Lumumba’s revolutionary courage greatly impressed Tinguely and made a lasting mark on him. ‘Baluba No. 5’, topped jauntily by a large pink feather, also speaks to Tinguely’s investigations of temporality, and his belief that the absurd ritual routines, those that have us running back and forth all day long, dominating civilized existence are, ultimately, pointless.

‘I made wobbling Balubas – those sculptures that were meant to portray a certain craziness and rush in this technological civilization.’ – Jean Tinguely

Installation view, Kunsthaus Zürich, ‘Jean Tinguely’, Zurich/CH, June 11 - August 8, 1982. ‘La Tour (Berner Zytglogge)’ can be seen on the left.

‘La vitesse totale (Bleu affolé)’ (1958)

‘La vitesse totale (Bleu affolé)’ (1958) is a collaboration between Jean Tinguely and Yves Klein, two of the 20th century’s vanguard artists. The work is a joyous marriage of Klein’s theories of immateriality and Tinguely’s drive to imbue sculpture with movement. In composition, the work’s constituents are deceptively simple: a large flat disc (ø 80 cm / 2 ft 7 ½ inches), painted with International Klein Blue, is spun by Tinguely’s wall-mounted motorised ‘chassis’ at approximately 4,500 rotations per minute. When the viewer activates the sculpture with the floor pedal, however, the disc’s rapidly rotating form seemingly dissolves into the air, the surface and edges becoming a blue blur as the disc blends into the atmosphere. It hovers between two states of being, solid form and mere ether. For both Klein and Tinguely, this project signified the irrepressible desire of humans to materialise the spiritual. It was also a beautiful merger of the monochrome aesthetics of Klein and the mechanical, dynamic and often interactive nature of Tinguely’s art, a true fusion of artistic sensibilities.

Gallerist Iris Clert at the opening of the exhibition, ‘Yves Klein & Jean Tinguely. Vitesse pure et Stabilité monochrome’, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris/FR, 17 November 1958

Jean Tinguely standing directly in front of ‘La vitesse totale (Bleu affolé)’ at the opening of the exhibition, ‘Yves Klein & Jean Tinguely. Vitesse pure et Stabilité monochrome’, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris/FR, 17 November 1958

Jean Tinguely and Yves Klein in front of the unfinished ‘La vitesse totale (Bleu affolé)’, Impasse Ronsin, November 1958.

Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) Blanc sur Blanc 1955 Painted wood panel, painted metal elements, wooden pulleys, rubber belt, metal rod, electric motor 53 x 46 x 18 cm / 20 7/8 x 18 1/8 x 7 1/8 in

Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) Métamatic 1959 – 1960 Painted metal, wooden wheels, rubber belts, ink pad, wooden stamp, paper, electric motor 214 x 110 x 86 cm / 84 1/4 x 43 1/4 x 33 7/8 in

Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) La Tour (Berner Zytglogge) 1960 Bicycle wheels, scrap iron, metal rods and tubes, wooden boards and wheel, rubber belts, tape, string, glue, electric motor 317 x 100 x 140 cm / 124 3/4 x 39 3/8 x 55 1/8 in

Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) La Jalousie I 1960 Beaded curtain mounted on metal rod, electric motor 215 x 96 x 30 cm / 84 5/8 x 37 3/4 x 11 3/4 in

Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) Baluba No. 5 1961 Cast iron base, iron rods and springs, metal chain, bells, rubber tubes, feathers, hair, electric motor 147 x 60 x 60 cm / 57 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in

Yves Klein / Jean Tinguely La vitesse totale (Bleu affolé) (S 27) 1958 Dry pigment and synthetic resin on isorel disc (painted by Yves Klein), iron support, wood, electric motor Overall: 80 x 91 x 41 cm / 31 1/2 x 35 7/8 x 16 1/8 in

pp. 35 – 37, 40 (lower right) Photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography Zürich

pp. 4, 6 – 7, 40 (top left) Photo: Alex Delfanne pp. 11, 13, 16, 18 – 19, 23 – 25, 28, 30 – 31, 40 (top centre, top right, lower left, lower centre) Photo: Reto Rodolfo Pedrini