Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle (29 October 1930 – 21 May 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.

The early years

The Golem, Kiryat Hayovel, Israel

Niki de Saint Phalle was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, to Count André-Marie Fal de Saint Phalle (1906–1987), a French banker, and his American wife, the former Jeanne Jacqueline Harper (1908–1980).^[1][2][3] She had four siblings, and a double first cousin was French novelist Thérèse de Saint Phalle (Baroness Jehan de Drouas). After being wiped out financially during the Great Depression, the family moved from France to the United States in 1933, where her father worked as manager of the American branch of the Saint Phalle family's bank. Saint Phalle enrolled at the prestigious Brearley School in New York City, but she was dismissed for painting fig leaves red on the school's statuary. She went on to attend Oldfields School in Glencoe, Maryland where she graduated in 1947. During her teenaged years, Saint Phalle was a fashion model; at the age of sixteen, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine (September 26, 1949), and, three years later, on the November 1952 cover of French Vogue.

At eighteen, Saint Phalle eloped with author Harry Mathews, whom she had known since the age of twelve, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. While her husband studied music at Harvard University, Saint Phalle began to paint, experimenting with different media and styles. Their first child, Laura, was born in April 1951.

Saint Phalle rejected the staid, conservative values of her family, which dictated domestic positions for wives and particular rules of conduct. Poet John Ashbery recalled that Saint Phalle's artistic pursuits were rejected by members of Saint Phalle clan: her uncle "French banker Count Alexandre de Saint-Phalle, ... reportedly takes a dim view of her artistic activities," Ashbery observed.^[4] However, after marrying young and becoming a mother, she found herself living the same bourgeois lifestyle that she had attempted to reject; the internal conflict caused her to suffer a nervous breakdown. As a form of therapy, she was urged to pursue her painting.

While in Paris on a modeling assignment, Saint Phalle was introduced to the American painter, Hugh Weiss, who became both her friend and mentor. He encouraged her to continue painting in her self-taught style.

She subsequently moved to Deià, Majorca, Spain, where her son, Philip, was born in May 1955. While in Spain, Saint Phalle read the works of Proust and visited Madrid and Barcelona, where she became deeply affected by the work of Antonio Gaudí. Gaudí's influence opened many previously unimagined possibilities for Saint Phalle, especially with regard to the use of unusual materials and objets-trouvés as structural elements in sculpture and architecture. Saint Phalle was particularly struck by Gaudí's "Park Güell" which persuaded her to create one day her own garden-based artwork that would combine both artistic and natural elements.

Saint Phalle continued to paint, particularly after she and her family moved to Paris in the mid-1950s. Her first art exhibition was held in 1956 in Switzerland, where she displayed her naïve style of oil painting. She then took up collage work that often featured images of the instruments of violence, such as guns and knives.

In the late 1950s, Saint Phalle was ill with hyperthyroidism which was eventually treated by an operation in 1958. Sometime during the early 1960s, she left her first husband.^[5]

Nanas

After the "Shooting paintings" came a period when she explored the various roles of women. She made life size dolls of women, such as brides and mothers giving birth. They were usually dressed in white. They were primarily made of polyester with a wire framework. They were generally created from papier mâché.

1964

Inspired by the pregnancy of her friend Clarice Rivers, the wife of American artist Larry Rivers, she began to use her artwork to consider archetypal female figures in relation to her thinking on the position of women in society. Her artistic expression of the proverbial everywoman were named 'Nanas'. The first of these freely posed forms—made of papier-mâché, yarn, and cloth—were exhibited at the Alexander Iolas Gallery in Paris in September 1965. For this show, Iolas published her first artist book that includes her handwritten words in combination with her drawings of 'Bananas'. Encouraged by Iolas, she started a highly productive output of graphic work that accompanied exhibitions that included posters, books, and writings.

In 1966, Saint Phalle collaborated with fellow artist Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt on a large-scale sculpture installation, "hon-en katedral" ("she-a cathedral") for Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden. The outer form of "hon" is a giant, reclining 'Nana', whose internal environment is entered from between her legs. The piece elicited immense public reaction in magazines and newspapers throughout the world. The interactive quality of the "hon" combined with a continued fascination with fantastic types of architecture intensifies her resolve to see her own architectural dreams realized. During the construction of the "hon-en katedral," she met Swiss artist Rico Weber, who became an important assistant and collaborator for both de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely. During the 1960s, she also designed decors and costumes for two theatrical productions: a ballet by Roland Petit, and an adaptation of the Aristophanes play "Lysistrata."

In 1971, de Saint Phalle and Tinguely married.

The Tarot Garden

Influenced by Gaudí´s Parc Güell in Barcelona, and the garden in Bomarzo, Saint Phalle decided that she wanted to make something similar; a monumental sculpture park created by a woman. In 1979, she acquired some land in Garavicchio, Tuscany, about 100 km north-west of Rome along the coast. The garden, called Giardino dei Tarocchi in Italian, contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. The garden took many years, and a considerable sum of money, to complete. It opened in 1998, after more than 20 years of work.

Public works

Niki de Saint Phalle's only American sculpture garden, Queen Califia's Magic Circle at Kit Carson Park, Escondido, California, 2011

On 17 November 2000 the artist became an honorary citizen of Hannover, Germany, and donated 300 pieces of her artwork to the Sprengel Museum.

Many of Niki de Saint Phalle's sculptures are large and some of them are exhibited in public places, including:

• Miles Davis statue outside of Hotel Negresco in Nice, France.
• Stravinsky Fountain (or Fontaine des automates) near the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1982)—also featuring works of Jean Tinguely
• La fountaine Château-Chinon, at Château-Chinon, Nièvre. Collaboration with Jean Tinguely
• L'Ange Protecteur in the Hall of the Zürich Train Station
• Nanas, along the Leibnizufer in Hannover (1974).
• Queen Califia's Magic Circle, a sculpture garden in Kit Carson Park, Escondido, California^[6]
• Sun God (1983), a fanciful winged creature next to the Faculty Club on the campus of the University of California, San Diego as a part of the Stuart Collection of public art.
• La Lune, A sculpture located inside the Brea Mall in Brea, California.
• Nikigator, A sculpture on The Prado, Balboa Park in San Diego, California.
• #19 Baseball Player, a sculpture on loan to The San Diego Hall of Champions, Balboa Park, San Diego
• Coming Together, San Diego convention center^[7]
• Grotto at the Royal Herrenhäuser Gardens in Hannover, Germany^[8]
• Cyclop in Milly-La-Forêt, France—collaborative monumental sculpture with Jean Tinguely, a.o.^[9]
• Golem in Jerusalem^[10]
• Noah's Ark collaborative sculpture park with Swiss architect Mario Botta at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo^[11][12]
• Lebensretter-Brunnen / Lifesaver Fountain in Duisburg, Germany
• l’Oiseau de Feu Sur l’Arch / Firebird (literally, “Bird of Fire on an Arch”), in Bechtler Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[13]
• Miss Black Power in the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Hakone, Japan
• La Tempérance (1992) in Centre Hamilius, Luxembourg-Ville, Luxembourg.^[14]

Literature

• Niki de Saint Phalle, Pontus Hultén, ISBN 3-7757-0582-1. Published in connection with an exhibition in Bonn
• Traces: An Autobiography Remembering 1930–1949, Niki de Saint Phalle, ISBN 2-940033-43-9
• Harry & Me. The Family Years, Niki de Saint Phalle, ISBN 371651442X
• Niki de Saint Phalle: Catalogue Raisonné: 1949–2000, Janica Parente a.o., ISBN 2-940033-48-X
• Niki De Saint Phalle: Monographie/Monograph, Michel de Grece a.o., ISBN 2-940033-63-3
• Niki's World: Niki De Saint Phalle, Ulrich Krempel, ISBN 3-7913-3068-3
• Niki de Saint Phalle. My art, my dreams, Carla Schultz-Hoffmann (Editor), ISBN 3-7913-2876-X
• AIDS: You can’t catch it holding hands, Niki de Saint Phalle, ISBN 0-932499-52-X
• Niki de Saint Phalle: Insider-Outsider. World Inspired Art, Niki de Saint Phalle, Martha Longenecker (Editor), ISBN 0-914155-10-5
• Niki De Saint Phalle: The Tarot Garden, Anna Mazzanti, ISBN 88-8158-167-1
• Niki de Saint Phalle: La Grotte, ISBN 3-7757-1276-3
• Jo Applin, "Alberto Burri and Niki de Saint Phalle: Relief Sculpture and Violence in the Sixties', Source: Notes in the History of Art, Winter 2008

Film

• Daddy, 1973, written and directed by Saint Phalle and Peter Lorrimer Whitehead.
• Un rêve plus long que la nuit, 1971, written and directed by Saint Phalle.
• Who is the monster - You or me?, 1995, by Peter Schamoni in collaboration with Saint Phalle.

See also

• Herrenhausen Gardens
• Kiryat Yovel
• Les Trois Grâces
• Nana on a Dolphin
• New Realism
• Stuart Collection
• Sun God (statue)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Niki de Saint Phalle

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Giardino dei Tarocchi

• Official site
• Official site of the artist's foundation, NCAF
• FemBiography Niki de Saint Phalle
• Niki Museum - Nasu, Japan
• Niki de Saint Phalle: Queen Califia - sculpture park in Escondido, California
• Fountain at Château-Chinon
• Stuart Collection, UCSD
• Niki in Artfacts
• The Tarot Garden
• The Mosaics of Niki de Saint Phalle
• Nike de Saint Phalle at JGM Galerie
• Guardian Angel - Zürich Hauptbahnhof
• Niki de Saint Phalle shop
• Niki works at Gallery Delaive
• The Tarot Garden - Giardino dei Tarocchi Feature Article
• Tir, exhibit at elles@centrepompidou, Paris, film about Tir, on the elles@centrepompidou's website

Bibliography

• Jill Carrick, “Phallic Victories? Niki de Saint-Phalle’s Tirs”, Art History, vol 26, no. 5, November 2003, pp. 700–729.