How did Jean Tinguely’s Homage to New York combine sculpture with an event?

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Kara Walker: A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby — Sculpture Visitors viewing *A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby*, a sugar-coated polystyrene sculpture by Kara Walker, 2014, part of a temporary installation at the former Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, New York.

Jean Tinguely’s Homage to New York (1960) redefined sculpture by integrating it into a performative event centered on its own destruction. Rather than existing as a static object, this 27-foot-high assemblage of motors and wheels was designed to commit "public suicide" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.1

By staging this self-destruction, Tinguely transformed the sculpture into a fleeting, dramatic experience. The event highlighted his interest in the "dematerialization" of art, moving away from traditional, permanent forms toward a process defined by instability and change. Although the machine failed to destroy itself as planned—eventually requiring intervention by city firemen—the performance itself became the work of art, effectively satirizing the industrial obsession with production by showcasing a machine dedicated solely to its own collapse. This approach underscored Tinguely’s broader philosophy that the essence of art lies in continuous movement and the rejection of static tradition.1