Museum Tinguely - The Museum - Jean Tinguely

The Collections
Jean Tinguely
The Architecture
Mario Botta
The Building
Sponsorship

1925

Born on May 22 in Fribourg.
Mother and child move from Bulle to Basel in July 1925.

1931 - 1940

Attends schools in Basel.

1941 - 1944

Apprenticeship as a decorator.

1944

Attends courses at the School of Arts and Crafts in Basel.

From 1947

One of the followers of the Basel anarchist Heiner Koechlin.

October 1952

Moves to France with his wife Eva Aeppli.

May 1954

Opens his first exhibition at Galerie Arnaud in Paris.

1955

At the beginning of the year Tinguely moves into a studio in the Impasse Ronsin; his neighbours are sculptor Constantin Brancusi and other artists.
Shows his Relief Méta-mécanique sonore in an exhibition at Galerie Samlaren in Stockholm.

1955 - 1956

Meets Niki de Saint Phalle and Yves Klein.

1958

Exhibits Mes étoiles – Concert pour sept peintures at Galerie Iris Clert in July.
Shows the installation “Vitesse pure et stabilité monochrome” in the same gallery in November together with Yves Klein.

March 1959

Scatters copies of the manifesto “Für Statik” (For statics) from an airplane over Düsseldorf.

July 1959

Exhibition “Méta-Matics de Jean Tinguely” at Galerie Iris Clert in Paris.

November 1959

“Cyclo-Matic” Evening at the ICA (Institute of Contem- porary Arts) in London, a happening with racing cyclists and drawing machines.

March 1960

“Homage to New York”, happening with a self-destructing machine sculpture in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

October 1960

The group “Nouveaux Réalistes” is founded in Paris with Arman, Francis Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Pierre Restany, Jacques de Villeglé, Martial Raysse and Daniel Spoerri.

September 1961

“Étude pour une fin du monde No. 1”, a happening with rockets and other fireworks at the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark.

March 1962

“Study for an End of the World No. 2”, another sculpture group that self-destructs in the presence of an audience in the desert near Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Winter 1963 - 1964

Creation of the large sculpture “Heureka” for the Expo 64 in Lausanne.

Spring 1966

Creation of “Hon” in collaboration with Niki de Saint Phalle and Per Olof Ultvedt at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

1967

Presents two works at the World Fair 67 in Montreal; creates “Requiem pour une feuille morte” for the Swiss pavilion, and “Le Paradis fantastique” together with Niki de Saint Phalle for the French pavilion.

Christmas 1968

Takes up residence in Switzerland in an old inn he acquires in Neyruz, Canton of Fribourg.

1970

Construction begins in Milly-la-Forêt on “Le Cyclop”, a giant walk-in sculpture created in collaboration with Bernhard Luginbühl, Larry Rivers, Niki de Saint Phalle, Daniel Spoerri and others. Work is carried out with the aid of Tinguely's assistants Josef Imhof and Rico Weber.

November 1970

“La Vittoria”: in front of Milan Cathedral, Tinguely burns a giant golden phallus on the occasion of the festival celebrating the 10th anniversary of the “Nouveaux Réalistes”.

1971 - 1973

Creation of the “Grosse Spirale” or “Doppel-Helix” in the courtyard of the Basel Institute for Immunology of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

1973 - 1975

Tinguely constructs the monumental sculpture “Chaos No. 1” in the Civic Mall, Columbus, Indiana, USA.

November 1976

“Débriscollages” exhibition at Galerie Bischofberger in Zurich, in which visitors are encouraged to produce their own work of art.

May 1977

For the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Jean Tinguely, Bernhard Luginbühl and Niki de Saint Phalle create the installation “Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce”. Inside it, Daniel Spoerri sets up a “Musée sentimental”.

June 1977

Dedication of the “Fasnachtsbrunnen” in Basel.

September 1978

“Méta-Harmonie I” is created for the Hammer exhibition in Basel.

May 1979

“Klamauk”, a sound sculpture mounted on a tractor, and “Méta-Harmonie II” are shown for the first time in a more important show at the “Tinguely – Luginbühl” exhibition at the Städel, Frankfurt.

July 1981

Exhibition at the Abbey of Sénanque. Tinguely exhibits skull sculptures for the first time.

1982 - 1983

Retrospectives in Zurich (Kunsthaus), London (Tate Gallery), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts) and Geneva (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire). The altarpiece “Cenodoxus” is one of the key works in the exhibitions in Zurich and Geneva.

March 1983

Dedication of the Fontaine Igor Strawinsky in Paris, created in collaboration with Niki de Saint Phalle.

February – April 1984

Creation of a sculpture called “Pit-Stop” in Rungis near Paris commissioned by Régie Renault, composed of elements from Formula 1 racing cars.

June 1984

Dedication of the “Fontaine Jo Siffert”, a gift of Jean Tinguely to the city of Fribourg.
Tinguely creates “Meta-Harmonie III – Pandämonium” for the Seibu Museum in Japan.

1985

Creation of “Méta Harmonie IV – Fatamorgana” in an abandoned factory building of Von Roll Ltd. in Olten for the exhibition in the Kunsthalle of the Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich.

Autumn 1986

Tinguely creates his “Mengele-Totentanz,” using charred beams, burnt agricultural machinery, household appliances and animal skulls from a farmhouse in Neyruz that burned to the ground.

1987

Creation of the huge, walk-in “Grosse Méta Maxi-Maxi Utopia” in a factory building of Von Roll Ltd. in Klus. This is shown in the retrospective in Venice (Palazzo Grassi). The exhibition continues to Turin (Promotrice delle Belle Arti), Paris (Musée national de l’art moderne in the Centre Georges Pompidou). In Paris, Tinguely exhibits for the first time “Dernière Collaboration avec Yves Klein” and the sculpture group “Les Philosophes”.

January 1988

Purchase of the former bottle factory La Verrerie in the Canton of Fribourg to serve as a studio.

March 1988

Dedication of the Fontaine de Château-Chinon – commissioned by the President of France, François Mitterrand – created in collaboration with Niki de Saint Phalle.

1990

A Tinguely exhibition is held at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The expanded Moscow exhibition is shown in 1991 at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Fribourg. Tinguely also shows at these exhibitions his “Rétable de l’abondance occidentale et du mercantilisme totalitaire”.

1991

Creation of “La Cascade“, a large hanging sculpture, in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
At the ART Basel exhibition, presentation of “Kulturgüter- zug”, an installation by Jean Tinguely in collaboration with Eva Aeppli, Bernhard and Iwan Luginbühl, Jim Whiting, Milena Palakarkina, Daniel Spoerri and Ben Vautier.