Roto Zaza No. 1

Jean Tinguely is best known as a sculptor of mechanical devices and portable machines. Tinguely’s works often incorporate motors and rotating fixtures, after the “roto-reliefs” of Marcel Duchamp. He vibrating forms and springy lines of Tinguely’s prints celebrate the centrality of movement in Tinguely practice. Their scrappy, collage effect also relates to Tinguely’s used of ready-made elements and reflections on motorized production and industrial design. Unwaveringly playful and witty in his mechanical constructions, the spirit of absurdity and play certainly carry through Tinguely’s works on paper. Illustrated like blueprints or patents, these works satirize industrial society through their designs for superfluous assemblages of metal and machinery.