Composition 1990 – Jean Tinguely (1925–1991)

Collage, gouache, and oil on cardboard by Jean Tinguely (1925–1991).

The work is signed and dated “Jean Tinguely 90” in the lower right.

This composition evokes a spontaneous mapping of a mechanical universe, transposed onto a humble and fragile support: cardboard. The surface unfolds as a constellation of colored circular forms, arranged without true symmetry but connected by a network of lines, like the elements of a mechanism in perpetual expansion.

These discs recall gears, pulleys, or detached mechanical parts; however, deprived of any utilitarian function, they become true artistic signs. The eye moves from one form to another along an almost narrative path, as though attempting to decipher the workings of an imaginary machine.

The vivid tones — orange, violet, yellow-green, and blue — stand out intensely against the brown cardboard ground.

A major figure of 20th-century art, Jean Tinguely is considered one of the pioneers of kinetic art. Through his machines and assemblages, he explored movement, sound, and mechanical poetry, while questioning the traditional codes of artistic creation.