The Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) worked in a manner that combined aspects of Dada, Constructivism, and kinetic art. His sculptures are capricious constructions made of a wide variety of materials, most often of junk. They are assembled to function as strange and often whimsical machines which are erratic in their performance and were at times designed to self-destruct.

Jean Tinguely was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1925, the only child of a factory worker and his wife. In 1928 the family moved to Basel where Tinguely lived until 1951, when he moved to Paris. As a child he was a poor student but an avid reader and spent much of his free time perched in a tree thinking and reading. He created his first example of kinetic art at the age of 12 and still felt in the 1980s that this was his best effort in motion art. Tinguely had placed...