Lot Essay
As an outdoor water fountain, Cowboy in the Rain ranks as one of Jean Tinguely's rarest and most sought after sculptural forms. Poignantly beautiful in its merger of natural and mechanised forces, yet tragi-comic in its counter-point of graceful and repetitively robotic movement, it exemplifies Tinguely's belief that kinetic art is the only true mirror of life. As he told writer Calvin Tomkins, "Life is movement. Everything transforms itself, everything modifies itself ceaselessly, and to try and stop it, to try and check life in mid-flight and recapture it in the form of a work of art, a sculpture or a painting, seems to me a mockery of the intensity of life... I want only to involve myself in the moving object that forever transforms itself."
Although, Tinguely had included the use of water in his sculptural repertoire since the early 1960s, it was only in the mid-1970s that the full potential of the fountain was mined. In 1975 he was commissioned to create a work for a new urban space in the centre of Basel. Inaugurated two years later, the Theaterbrunnen-Fastnachsbrunnen consisted of ten individual fountains set in a shallow basin. Each mechanised sculpture was armed with a water jet or spray, set at different pressures. This, coupled with their individualised movements and speeds, endowed each work with its own anthropomorphic personality: some dizzy and anarchic extroverts, others more meditative and timid. Working in subtle synchronisation, together they performed a ballet of complex emotions that defied the notion of the machine as a cold, efficient and precise tool.
The construction of Cowboy in the Rain coincided with the making of the Basel sculptures and as such, shares many of their special characteristics. Using as his customary medium discarded metal elements, Tinguely built an abstract form, which he equipped with motor, hose pipes and nossles. Turn on the water and the electricity and suddenly a tower of junk-yard jetson is imbued with a distinctive human persona. The slow piston movement of the piece bares an uncanny resemblance to that of a cowboy being bucked up and down by his unruly mount in a rodio. A water jet swirls and draws a liquid lasso in the air. Meanwhile a fine shower of water sprays from the top of the sculpture to define the head and mane of the horse. Rarely has Tinguely been able to create so literal an image with such economy and grace.
Although, Tinguely had included the use of water in his sculptural repertoire since the early 1960s, it was only in the mid-1970s that the full potential of the fountain was mined. In 1975 he was commissioned to create a work for a new urban space in the centre of Basel. Inaugurated two years later, the Theaterbrunnen-Fastnachsbrunnen consisted of ten individual fountains set in a shallow basin. Each mechanised sculpture was armed with a water jet or spray, set at different pressures. This, coupled with their individualised movements and speeds, endowed each work with its own anthropomorphic personality: some dizzy and anarchic extroverts, others more meditative and timid. Working in subtle synchronisation, together they performed a ballet of complex emotions that defied the notion of the machine as a cold, efficient and precise tool.
The construction of Cowboy in the Rain coincided with the making of the Basel sculptures and as such, shares many of their special characteristics. Using as his customary medium discarded metal elements, Tinguely built an abstract form, which he equipped with motor, hose pipes and nossles. Turn on the water and the electricity and suddenly a tower of junk-yard jetson is imbued with a distinctive human persona. The slow piston movement of the piece bares an uncanny resemblance to that of a cowboy being bucked up and down by his unruly mount in a rodio. A water jet swirls and draws a liquid lasso in the air. Meanwhile a fine shower of water sprays from the top of the sculpture to define the head and mane of the horse. Rarely has Tinguely been able to create so literal an image with such economy and grace.