Jean Tinguely

Elément Détaché I

Relief méta-mécanique

1954

Material / technique: Tubular steel frame, steel wire, 12 variously shaped cardboard elements, all painted white, 110V electric motor
Size: 81 x 131 x 35,5 cm
Inv.Number: 11101
Catalogue raisonné: Bischofberger 0020
Creditline: Museum Tinguely, Basel

The first works Tinguely executed after arriving in Paris were the series “Moulin à prière“, sculptures he formed out of wire and which consisted mainly of interlocking wire cogwheels. Soon thereafter he created the three “Eléments Détachés”, the first of which is in the collection of Museum Tinguely. In these he affixed irregularly shaped pieces of Pavatex insulation, which he perhaps found in this form, onto the axes of the cogwheels and painted them white; these rotate with the motion of the relief.