Museum Tinguely
Until May 11, 2025

For decades, there have been close links between the histories of art and shop window display. Besides Jean Tinguely, many other artists have designed pioneering window displays. Conversely, window displays frequently feature as a motif in artworks or serve as a stage for performances and actions. The exhibition will explore this eventful relationship from its beginnings to the present day, while artistic interventions in shop windows in Basel extend the show into public space.

Art and shop windows may seem like unusual partners, but if one takes a look at the history of shop window displays, one finds a long tradition. In the late 19th century, when window displays developed into a central element of modern consumer culture, people soon began to think about the potential for presenting commodities in aesthetic ways. With surprising and creative displays, such windows were the store’s street-facing calling card, inviting people to stop and look, around the clock, as well as informing passersby about special offers, always with the aim of generating sales.

In 1950s New York, artists supplemented their income with regular jobs in this field. An important role here was played by Gene Moore, who fostered the talent of young, unknown artists in his position as art director for the department store Bonwit Teller and the jeweler Tiffany & Co., where he would select works by Sari Dienes or Susan Weil for window displays, or commission elaborate designs from Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, or Andy Warhol before they became established in the art world. Some of these shop window designs are documented in the exhibition in the form of photographs, while others have been faithfully reconstructed, allowing them to be rediscovered some 70 years later.

Conversely, such displays featured as motifs in many paintings, installations, sculptures, video works, and series of photographs—works that deal with the qualities and associative potential inherent in shop windows. As highly visible spaces in prominent locations, shop windows also proved interesting for performance artists. With the aim of reaching the largest, most diverse audience possible, social and political issues have often been addressed on this stage. In October 1969, Tinguely’s “Rotozaza III” was activated in the window of the Bern department store Loeb: By smashing crockery in front of a crowd of onlookers, it playfully criticized the western world’s excessive consumerism.

The exhibition extends out into the streets of Basel with interventions in shop windows. For this part of the show, Museum Tinguely is cooperating with StadtKonzeptBasel and students from the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW who will create installations and performances in various shop windows between January and March 2025.

https://www.tinguely.ch/en/exhibitions/exhibitions/2024/fresh-window.html

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