Fresh Window: The Art of Display & Display of Art

Since the late 19th century, the shop window has shaped the urban landscape, mediating between the promises of consumer goods and the desires of passersby. The exhibition Fresh Window at the Museum Tinguely, inspired by Marcel Duchamp's work Fresh Widow, explores the window as a membrane between public space and hidden desire. Many artists not only earned a living through window displays but also used this setting as a testing ground to experiment with new practices. Works by artists such as Jean Tinguely, Andy Warhol and Marina Abramovic reveal how the boundary between consumer culture and artistic experimentation is continually renegotiated—sometimes ironically, sometimes shockingly.

"Artists soon began exploring this new phenomenon. Following his absurd take on the window’s functions and meanings in his 1920 work Fresh Widow, Marcel Duchamp designed his first shop window display in 1945 for the launch of a book by André Breton in New York. By then, Jean Tinguely was already working as a professional window dresser in Basel. Having begun his apprenticeship at the Globus department store in 1941, he was fired in 1943 for lack of discipline. He completed his training in 1944 with the freelance window dresser Joos Hutter, who encouraged him to attend Basel’s school of applied arts. Often made out of wire, his window designs – for clients including the opticians Ramstein Iberg Co., the bookstore Tanner, and the furniture store Wohnbedarf Jehle – anticipated the signature style of his later artworks."

• Catalogue of the exhibition Fresh Window: The Art of Display & Display of Art at the Museum Tinguely December 4, 2024-May 11, 2025
• 2025, Pages: 240, English/German, 200 color & 90 b/w ill. Softcover. Verlag fur Moderne Kunst

• Artists include: Berenice Abbott, Marina Abramovic, Eugène Atget, Christo, Gregory Crewdson, Marcel Duchamp, Elmgreen & Dragset, Richard Estes, Sayre Gomez, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Martha Rosler, Tschabalala Self, Jean Tinguely, Andy Warhol.