Jean Tinguely @ Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam: Machine Spectacle

Jean Tinguely
Machine Spectacle
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
1 October 2016 - 5 March 2017 

Swiss artist JEAN TINGUELY (1925–1991) is famous for his playful, boldly kinetic machines and explosive performances. Everything had to be different, everything had to move. Precisely twenty-five years after his death, on October 1st, the Stedelijk opens a Tinguely retrospective: the largest-ever exhibition of the artist to be mounted in a Dutch museum. With over a hundred machine sculptures, most of which are in working order, paired with films, photos, drawings, and archive materials, the presentation takes the public on a chronological and thematic journey of Tinguely’s artistic development and ideas, from his love of absurd play to his fascination for destruction and ephemerality.

The presentation features his early wire sculptures and reliefs, in which Jean Tinguely imitated and animated the abstract paintings of artists such as Malevich, Miró, and Klee; the interactive drawing machines and wild dancing installations constructed from salvaged metal, waste materials, and discarded clothing; and his streamlined, military-looking black sculptures.

First-ever presentation in the Netherlands: the imposing Mengele-Totentanz installation

Jean Tinguely’s self-destructive performances are a special feature of the Stedelijk presentation. The enormous installations Tinguely created between 1960–1970 (Homage to New York, Étude pour une fin du monde No. 1, Study for an End of the World No. 2, and La Vittoria) were designed to spectacularly disintegrate in a barrage of sound. The presentation also spotlights the exhibitions Tinguely organized at the Stedelijk, Bewogen Beweging (1961) and Dylaby (1962), and the gigantic sculptures he later produced: HON – en katedral (“SHE – a cathedral,” 1966), Crocrodrome (1977) and the extraordinary Le Cyclop (1969–1994), which is still on display outside Paris. The survey ends with a dramatic grand finale, the remarkable, room-filling installation, Mengele-Totentanz (1986), a disturbing display of light and shadow never previously shown in the Netherlands. Tinguely realized the work after witnessing a devastating fire, reclaiming objects from the ashes to piece together his installation: scorched beams, agricultural machinery (made by the Mengele company), and animal skeletons. The final piece is a gigantic memento mori, yet also an invocation of the Nazi concentration camps. Its juddering movements and piercing sounds evoke a haunting, grisly mood.

Play, interaction, spectacle!

Jean Tinguely created his work as a rejection of the static, conventional art world; he sought to emphasize play and experiment. For Tinguely, art was not about standing in a sterile white space, distantly gazing at a silent painting. He produced kinetic sculptures to set art and art history in motion, in works that animated the boundary between art and life. With his do-it-yourself drawing machines, Tinguely critiqued the role of the artist and the elitist position of art in society. He renounced the unicity of “the artist’s hand” by encouraging visitors to produce work themselves.

Collaboration was integral to Tinguely’s career. He worked extensively with artists like Daniel Spoerri, Niki de Saint Phalle (also his wife), Yves Klein, and others from the ZERO network, as well as museum directors such as Pontus Hultén, Willem Sandberg, and Paul Wember. Thanks to his charismatic, vibrant personality and the dazzling success with which he presented his work (and himself) in the public sphere, Tinguely was a vital figure within these networks, acting as leader, inspirator, and connector.

Relationship with Amsterdam and the Stedelijk

Amsterdam has enjoyed a dynamic history with Jean Tinguely. The exhibitions Bewogen Beweging (1961) and Dylaby (1962), for which Tinguely was (co)curator, particularly underline the extraordinarily close relationship that sprang up between the museum and the artist. Not only did he bring his kinetic Méta machines to the Netherlands, he also brought his international, avant-garde network, leaving an enduring impression on museumgoers who flocked to see these experimental exhibitions. Close relationships with Willem Sandberg, then director of the Stedelijk Museum, and curator Ad Petersen prompted various retrospectives and acquisitions for the collection: thirteen sculptures, including his famous drawing machine, Méta-Matic No. 10 (1959), Gismo (1960), and the enormous Méta II (1971). 

Catalogue

A catalogue will be published to mark the exhibition. Based on years of research conducted by the Stedelijk Museum and Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, the publication contains essays by several Tinguely experts, among them Margriet Schavemaker, Barbara Til, and Beat Wismer.

This exhibition is organised by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in collaboration with Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf.

This exhibition is made possible with generous support of the Turing Foundation, All Art Initiatives B.V., the Blockbusterfonds, the LUMA Foundation and additional support by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation, Switzerland and Museum Tinguely, Basel.

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
www.stedelijk.nl

Isa Genzken, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Isa Genzken: Mach Dich hübsch!
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
November 29, 2015 - March 6, 2016

Isa Genzken “Nofretete”, 2014 

7 Nefertiti plaster busts with glassed on wooden bases, wooden plinths on casters and 4 steel panels 

Each 190,7 x 40 x 50 cm Installation dimensions variable Galerie Buchholz 

© Photo courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin/New York

The exhibition Isa Genzken: Mach Dich hübsch! presents a survey of the extraordinary oeuvre of Isa Genzken (Germany, 1948), one of the most influential artists of the last forty years. The exhibition is the first major retrospective of Genzken in the Netherlands and is her largest survey to date, comprising over 200 works. 

Isa Genzken, Soziale Fassade, 2002

Metal, plastic and metal foil, 70 x 100 cm. Ringier Collection, Zürich 

© Photo courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin/New York 

Mach Dich hübsch! is an odyssey through four decades of an astonishing practice defined by artistic freedom and bold inventiveness. The first room introduces the concept of the exhibition. It was designed, in collaboration with Genzken, as a comprehensive installation of older works mixed with very recent work, which she created for this exhibition. In the following suite of galleries, Genzken’s oeuvre is presented as a montage, not a chronology, to highlight interconnections and thematic threads. The artist engages with themes such as artistic position, the body, identity, the (self) portrait, architecture, and big-city culture.

Isa Genzken, X-Ray, foto 

100 x 80 cm, private collection 

Courtesy of Gert Jan van Rooij. 

Isa Genzken’s oeuvre is rooted in the medium of sculpture, and is distinguished by radical experimentation and the unconstrained use of media. The artist works across a wide range of media, which includes sculpture, installation, film, video, painting, work on paper, collage, and photography. The radical inventiveness of her work, rich in autobiographical elements and subtle social critique, serves as a reference point and inspiration source for generations of artists and art lovers.

Curator Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen says, "Isa Genzken creates art that engages with the present moment. With her startling sculptural vision, she reflects upon the material world around us and the structures that dictate our lives. Among artists, Genzken's embodiment of the challenging, unconventional tradition of the Stedelijk Museum is virtually without equal.” 

Isa Genzken (2015) Galerie Buchholz 

© Photo courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin/New York

The artist has a special relationship with Amsterdam. She visited the Stedelijk Museum in her youth, and held one of her first exhibitions in the Amsterdam gallery Van Krimpen. The Stedelijk has been collecting her work since 1985, and holds several key works from her oeuvre. In 2014, newly appointed director Beatrix Ruf’s first acquisition for the museum was a Genzken painting, Zwei Lampen (1994). 

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
www.stedelijk.nl

Monumentalism History and national identity in contemporary art at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Monumentalism History and National Identity in Contemporary Art Proposal for Municipal Art Acquisitions 2010
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Through 9 January 2011

Monumentalism— History and National Identity in Contemporary Art: Proposal for Municipal Art Acquisitions 2010, is presented as part of The Temporary Stedelijk and occupy one half of the ground floor galleries. The 2010 presentation of this highly anticipated annual exhibition of works by artists living and/or working in the Netherlands will address the concepts of history and national identity. The exceptionally large number of diverse submissions this year—359 in all— demonstrates the particular significance and relevance of the theme. Organized by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the exhibition is curated by Jelle Bouwhuis, head of Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, and features the work of 19 artists selected by this year’s Municipal Art Acquisitions jury.

History seems to be an increasingly important factor in how we identify ourselves, our cultures and our norms and values. In the Netherlands alone, the recent establishment of a national history canon and the initiative to found a Museum of National History provide tangible evidence of the trend. In the 19th century, a similar upsurge in historical awareness led to the production of large history paintings and monuments commemorating national heroes and historic events. Contemporary art increasingly reflects on the past in myriad ways. However, unlike these earlier precedents, today‘s art is seldom made specifically for the glorification of a nation; rather, it deals with the broadened scope of issues related to social developments such as globalization and transnationalism, which challenge a clear comprehension of what constitutes ―the national.

This idea forms the scope of this year‘s municipal art acquisitions exhibition, which shows a wide range of possible responses and takes the subjects of national identity and history beyond nostalgia for a mythical past. Instead, the works yield an inherent fragmentation. Demonstrating a keen awareness that documentary images in photography or film are never straightforward representations of historical reality, the artists address those representations through all kinds of media—painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installation—while offering various insights and perspectives on cultural artifacts, language, politics, labor and capitalism through their individual explorations of questions surrounding national identity. Many of the exhibited works are being presented to the public for the first time.

The 2010 Municipal Art Acquisitions jury has selected the following artists:

Yael Bartana (1970, Kfar Yehezkel, Israel)

Lonnie van Brummelen (1969, Soest, NL) / Siebren de Haan (1966, Dordrecht, NL)

Ruth Buchanan (1980, New Plymouth, New Zealand)

Hala Elkoussy (1974, Cairo, Egypt)

Marianne Flotron (1970, Meiringen, Switzerland)

Zachary Formwalt (1979, Albany GA, USA)

Melissa Gordon (1981, Boston MA, USA)

Nicoline van Harskamp (1975, Hazerswoude, NL)

David Jablonowski (1982, Bochum, Germany)

Rob Johannesma (1970, Geleen, NL)

Iris Kensmil (1970, Amsterdam, NL)

Gert Jan Kocken (1971, Ravestein, NL)

Job Koelewijn (1962, Spakenburg, NL)

Rachel Koolen (1979, Rotterdam, NL)

Renzo Martens (1973, Sluiskil, NL)

Lucia Nimcova (1977, Humenne, Slovakia)

Wendelien van Oldenborgh (1962, Rotterdam, NL)

Barbara Visser (1966, Haarlem, NL)

Mieke Van de Voort (1972, Nijmegen, the NL)

The members of the Municipal Art Acquisitions jury 2010 are: Jelle Bouwhuis (chairman of the jury and curator of the exhibition), Valentijn Byvanck (director of the Museum of National History), Binna Choi (director of Casco, Utrecht), Roy Villevoye (artist) and Krist Gruijthuijsen (co-director Kunstverein and freelance curator).

The Municipal Art Acquisitions exhibition offers an important overview of the current state of the visual arts, photography, design and the applied arts in the Netherlands. Organized annually by the Stedelijk Museum and curated by an invited guest curator, this event focuses on one particular discipline or theme. With each edition of the exhibition, works are selected by the Stedelijk Museum‘s director for acquisition for the collection of the Stedelijk Museum.

Monumentalism is accompanied by a CATALOGUE co-edited by Bouwhuis and Margriet Schavemaker, Head of Research and Collections, Stedelijk Museum, with contributions by the editors, Jennifer Allen (art critic), Hendrik Folkerts (art historian) and Joep Leerssen (historian). The book also include information on the artists in the exhibition and a reprint of an article titled ―The Goodness of Nations‖ by anthropologist/political scientist Benedict Anderson. The bilingual (Dutch and English) volume is co-published by the Stedelijk Museum and NAi Publishers. Suggested retail price: EUR 19.50.

The exhibition is partially funded by the City of Amsterdam.

STEDELIJK MUSEUM

Paulus Potterstraat 13, Amsterdam

28 August 2010 - 9 January 2011