Joel Blair leads discussion at Tuesday with Art.

The first Tuesday of January I went to the Tropic Cinema at 5:30 out of curiosity.  I had gotten word of a film and discussion about kinetic “happening” artist Jean Tinguely and wondered who would turn up at such an event.Click here to see one of his sculptures in motion.

I happened to be a fan of the eccentric Swiss iconoclast who staged a Dada self-destroying sculpture presentation, Homage to New York, at the Museum of Modern Art in 1960.  However, it is a small art niche.

So I was surprised to find the small back theatre at the Tropic filled.  Sculptors, art lovers, a peculiar group of people who were as intrigued as I was about a pinnacle artist, now mostly obscure — definitely not a household name.

Subsequent Tuesdays with Art films and discussions followed the kinetic art theme to Theo Jansen (See one of his \”beasts\” here.), Dutch YouTube creator of wind propelled “beasts” and then to Tim Prentice, a Connecticut architect who designs metallic panels choreographed on air movements in ingenious repetitions that create an organic machine.See an astonishing glimpse here.

That discussion was particularly lively and included short video clips of Helen Verbanz’ motorized Seagrass sculpture at The Studios of Key West and Ralfonso, the Swiss artist who winters in Palm Beach County, FL, and brings a jarring dose of narcissism to the mix.

The free series, Tuesdays With Art, part of the Key West Film Society, meets at the Tropic Cinema on the first Tuesday of the month through May 5, 2009. Films about the artists precede a discussion of the movies and the current artist.

The next film is April 7 and features The Way Things Go, a Rube Goldberg chain reaction by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss.Sneak preview here.

Rereading this makes me want to visit Switzerland.