Jean Tinguely 1925-1991 Large (66cm X 48cm) Lithograph, Numbered And Signed Lower Right

Jean Tinguely 1925-1991 Large (66cm x 48cm) lithograph, numbered 4 of 300 and signed lower right. Bio: Jean Tinguely 1925-1991 Born in 1925 in Fribourg, Switzerland, Jean Tinguely grew up in Basel in a modest French-speaking family. A student with a very chaotic academic career, he displayed a rebellious spirit from a young age. However, he began creating small constructions very early on. He became an apprentice decorator, then entered the Basel School of Applied Arts thanks to the support of people who recognized his talent. It was there that he met his first wife, Eva Aeppli, with whom he settled in Impasse Ronsin in the 1950s. In this unique place filled with artists' studios, he found fertile ground for his experiments and quickly began to shake up the world of contemporary art. A key figure in 20th-century art, Jean Tinguely would have turned 100 this year. Inventor of machines as noisy as they were poetic, the Swiss artist reinvented our relationship to art and consumer society. Discover his work in the exhibition "Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten," on view until January 4, 2026, at the Grand Palais. In 1960, a meeting marked a turning point in his life: his encounter with Niki de Saint Phalle. A source of mutual inspiration, both personally and artistically, they formed an inseparable couple. Together, they created monumental, joyful, and whimsical works, such as Le Cyclop, created in 1971 with several artists including Niki; Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce, a gigantic mobile and sound sculpture; and the famous Stravinsky Fountain near the Centre Pompidou in 1983. For Tinguely, Niki “was the introduction of joy, the feathery, bell-like aspect.” And love, too. In the 1980s, the tone changed. Tinguely became increasingly interested in what he called “disappearance.” His sculptures became dark, jarring, haunted by death, as in L'Enfer, un petit début (Hell, a small beginning), a work in which he pushed some of his ideas to the extreme, particularly that of movement. Jean Tinguely died in 1991, at the age of 66, following a heart attack, leaving behind a free, vibrant, and profoundly unconventional body of work. It then fell to Niki de Saint Phalle, his lifelong partner, to preserve his work and organize his funeral, the ultimate tribute to an artist who never ceased to defy the established order.