Jean Tinguely
Built machines out of scrap that do nothing, badly, and sometimes destroy themselves.
Jean Tinguely was born at Fribourg in Switzerland in 1925 and built kinetic sculpture from scrap metal, bicycle wheels, motors and junk — machines that move noisily and achieve nothing, which he set against the efficiency the century had been promising. Homage to New York, assembled in the Museum of Modern Art's garden in 1960, was designed to destroy itself and did so, imperfectly, in twenty-seven minutes. He was a founder of Nouveau Realisme, married Niki de Saint Phalle, and built with her the Stravinsky Fountain in Paris and the Cyclop in the forest at Milly. He died in 1991.
These are working machines and that is the whole practical question. A Tinguely that no longer runs is a different object from one that does; motors fail, belts perish, welded scrap corrodes, and the question of what may be replaced without altering the work is a live one that the Museum Tinguely in Basel has done much to address. Maintenance history and any restoration record are central to a valuation. Drawings and prints are numerous and are the accessible part of the output.
If you own a work by Jean Tinguely
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.