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Machine Spectacle

This exhibition at Stedelijk is a journey on Jean Tinguely’s artistic development and ideas, from his love of absurd play to his fascination for destruction and ephemerality.

Jean Tinguely, Gismo, 1960. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam, 2016.

Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925–1991) is famous for his playful, boldly kinetic machines and explosive performances. Everything had to be different, everything had to move. Precisely twenty-five years after his death the Stedelijk opens the largest-ever exhibition of the artist to be mounted in a Dutch museum.

**Top:** Jean Tinguely, Gismo, 1960. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam, 2016. **Above:** Jean Tinguely, Le Cyclograveur, 1960, coll. Kunsthaus Zurich. Photo Gert Jan van Rooij

With over a hundred machine sculptures, most of which are in working order, paired with films, photos, drawings, and archive materials, the presentation takes the public on a chronological and thematic journey of Tinguely’s artistic development and ideas, from his love of absurd play to his fascination for destruction and ephemerality.

Jean Tinguely, Schnudernase, 1988, coll. Weishaupt, Kyoto Lamp 4 and 10, 1987-89, Museum Tinguely Basel, Die Sonne, 1990, Schmelas Geist, 1983-84, private collection. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij

The presentation features his early wire sculptures and reliefs, in which Tinguely imitated and animated the abstract paintings of artists such as Malevich, Miró, and Klee; the interactive drawing machines and wild dancing installations constructed from salvaged metal, waste materials, and discarded clothing; and his streamlined, military-looking black sculptures.