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Paris ? New York. The leading art centres, with trans-Atlantic exchanges around 1960. An example thereof is the exhilarating, multi-level collaboration between Robert Rauschenberg and Jean Tinguely that can be re-discovered at the Museum Tinguely. The show presents prestigious works on loan from New York, Los Angeles via Sydney to Stockholm as well as a comprehensive photographic, film and text documentation which sheds light on a chapter in the history of art that was exemplary for the intense artistic exchanges of the period, the fecund rapport between artistic disciplines and the rapprochement of art and life, central issues in equal measure for both Tinguely and Rauschenberg. 

More than most other artists of the 20^th Century, Robert Rauschenberg and Jean Tinguely extended the frontiers of the work of art and its significance, as well as its interaction with the onlooker. The aim to revolutionise traditional art by combining genres and an interactive art-environment is what binds both artists, in particular in the 1960s. Inspired and fired by models of the Dada generation ? first and foremost by Marcel Duchamp, ever present in Paris as in New York ? Rauschenberg and Tinguely wished to merge art and life. 

Typical of their collaboration are those works characterised by the direct interaction between art and the spectator. Both artists in those days were intensely occupied with the possibilities of integrating various forms of technique. They sought for possibilities to incorporate kinetics, light, sound as well as the time factor in their art.

Both artists were aware that working in cooperation advanced their search for a global artwork. This philosophy and their common interest in combining art with technology led to a first collaboration in New York in 1960 on the occasion of Jean Tinguely?s Homage to New York, the sensational action in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in which an artistic contraption self-destructed into separate parts. Robert Rauschenberg?s contribution to the project was Money Thrower for Tinguely?s H.T.N.Y, a centrifugal money catapult. A friendship grew between both artists, its importance manifested in Robert Rauschenberg?s Combine entitled Trophy III (for Jean Tinguely) in 1961. It is one of only five works that Rauschenberg dedicated to fellow artists, the others ? apart from Tinguely ? being Merce Cunningham, Teeny and Marcel Duchamp, John Cage and Jasper Johns.

A central feature of the artistic collaboration between Tinguely and Rauschenberg is their joint participation in outstanding exhibition projects of the 1960s. Amongst these is the comprehensive travelling exhibition partly curated by Pontus Hultén that opened in Amsterdam under the title ?Bewogen Beweging? as well as the project ?Dylaby? (August 30 to September 30, 1962), also held at the Stedeljik Museum in Amsterdam. For the Amsterdam venue of the show ?Bewogen Beweging?, Rauschenberg created Black Market at the suggestion of Billy Klüver, and in Stockholm he presented the two Combines Door and Johanson?s Painting. Tinguely on the other hand, who was the most extensively represented artist with 27 works, caused a stir in Amsterdam, especially with his Ballet des pauvres, and in Stockholm, with his Narva that was installed on the square in front of the Museum. 

The outcome of both artists? interest for the visualisation of time and movement, for cooperation and the presence of the onlooker were their joint stage performances during which art literally exists at the very moment in which it takes place. To these belong Variation II (also Homage to David Tudor) on June 20, 1961 at the Théâtre de l'Ambassade des États-Unis in Paris as well as Construction of Boston that was performed on May 4, 1962 at the Maidman Playhouse New York. There do remain material traces of these ephemeral performances, especially Rauchenberg?s First Time Painting executed during the exhibition at the Théâtre de l'Ambassade des États-Unis in Paris.

The cooperative projects led to impressive stages in the artistic evolution of both artists. Shortly after Tinguely?s ephemeral action consisting of movement, smoke, stench and noise in Homage to New York, Robert Rauschenberg requested Billy Klüver?s assistance at the end of March towards the realization of Oracle (1962-65). Initially, Rauschenberg had planned an interactive environment within which a human being in motion could influence the temperature, noise, smell, light, etc. Of further significance for Rauschenberg?s output is, that after his participation in ?Dylaby? (30.8. to 30.9.1961), to which he contributed a monumental installation in several parts consisting of found objects, he ceases to work on sculptures in order to revert to painting. For Tinguely, on the other hand, after his Homage to New York, began an intense period of artistic creation with a series of ephemeral actions such as the theatrical staging of his ?Ends of the World?, End of the World No. 1 and End of the World No. 2.

A richly illustrated catalogue appears in a German and English edition with essays by Roland Wetzel, Annja Müller-Alsbach, Heinz Stahlhut, Mari Dumett and Jean-Paul Ameline. Basel/Bielefeld 2009, 256 pp., CHF 58.-

October 14, 2009 to January 17, 2010

Museum Tinguely, Paul Sacher-Anlage 1, CH - 4002 Basel
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11 ? 19 / Monday closed

http://www.tinguely.ch