Galerie Paul Prouté

After completing an apprenticeship in the 1940s with the Globus department stores’ and then with Joos Hutter, Jean Tinguely began a career as a freelance decorator while studying at the Basel School of Arts and Crafts. Regularly using wire to create the window displays for which he was responsible, he began to forge a reputation for himself with this recognisable style. His move to Paris in 1952 gave him the opportunity to develop his artistic work around an issue that fascinated him: movement.

The 1950s were a fruitful period. Tinguely produced a large number of automata, mobile sculptures and reliefs; he took part in several solo and group exhibitions, and managed to forge a major international network. Joining the group of kinetic artists exhibiting at the Denise René gallery in 1955, the artist turned his attention to the machine, whose function and movement obsessed him. The first to see the light of day were his drawing machines, the Méta-Matics, in 1959. This was followed in the 1960s by his first self-destructing machines. The 1970s saw the emergence of increasingly noisy monumental sculptures: the Méta-Harmonies.