Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely had a very active artistic career, mingling in various avant-garde art circles and creating attention-grabbing works. Born in Fribourg, Tinguely grew up in Basel, but moved to France in 1952 with his first wife, fellow Swiss artist Eva Aeppli. He was one of the artists who signed the New Realist's manifesto (Nouveau réalisme) in 1960. The same year, he and his wife separated, and he met Niki de Saint Phalle, whom he would eventually marry in 1971.
Tinguely worked at a rapid pace in the French capital and produced several different groups of kinetic relief and wire sculptures. His art was a cynical commentary on automation and the technological overproduction of material goods. With their clanking, juddering, and underdeveloped mechanisms, the kinetic works were constantly changing and hence were as much a product of chance as of design. These kinetic sculptures, known officially as Metamechanics, were an extension of the Dada movement into the later part of the twentieth century.
His best-known work was a self-destroying sculpture titled Homage to New York (1960), located at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Although it only partially self-destructed, he managed to successfully accomplish this goal in his later work, Study for an End of the World No. 2 (1962), in front of an audience gathered in the Nevada desert. Much of his later career was spent creating large public art installations, often collaborating with Niki de Saint Phalle.
