Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002), an unclassifiable Franco-American artist, left her mark on the 20th century with a vibrant, feminist, and radical body of work. Painting, sculpture, performance, cinema: her exuberant art is a cry for freedom and healing.
Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine into a bourgeois Franco-American family, Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint-Phalle experienced a traumatic childhood, including incestuous rape by her father, which she revealed in 1994 in her book Mon secret.
In the 1950s, she became a model for Vogue, Life, and Elle. In 1953, a depression led her to the hospital, where she discovered painting as therapy. Self-taught, she trained through experimentation, outside of institutions.
An Explosive Body of Work, a Total Artist
She started with painting, then turned to assemblages and sculpture. In 1961, she joined the Nouveaux Réalistes (Arman, César, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely…) and became known for her Tirs: performances where she shot at works filled with paint bags. A spectacular denunciation of social taboos and violence.
From 1965, she created the Nanas, large, round, colorful, joyful female figures. These monumental sculptures became her signature: symbols of power, motherhood, and freedom. Far from the dominating male gaze, her Nanas rehabilitated women as subjects of art.
A Monumental and Dreamlike Universe
Niki de Saint Phalle created large-scale works in public spaces:
- The Stravinsky Fountain in Paris (with Jean Tinguely)
- The Cyclop in Milly-la-Forêt
- Hon/Elle at the Moderna Museet (Stockholm)
- The Tarot Garden in Tuscany: a sculptural park inspired by the tarot arcana
Her style is recognizable: vibrant colors, free forms, humor, hybridizations of techniques. She used various media: sculpture, drawing, engraving, film, writing.
A committed artist, her works address themes such as the female condition, sexuality, illness, broken childhoods, and ecology. Her art is both popular and intellectual, deeply emotional and political.
Niki de Saint Phalle also wrote and illustrated many books, especially for children, and directed experimental films.
Exhibited worldwide, she has been featured in retrospectives at:
- Centre Pompidou (1980)
- Grand Palais (2014)
- MoMA PS1 (2020)
- Menil Collection (Houston)
- MCASD (San Diego)
Her works are preserved at the Centre Pompidou, Moderna Museet, MoMA, Tate, Whitney Museum, Hirshhorn Museum…
She received numerous awards, including the Praemium Imperiale for her lifetime achievement.
“Mother Child” and “Le Soleil”, 2 Works by Niki at Château D’Arsac
The work Mother Child embodies the tenderness, joy, and energy that permeate Niki de Saint Phalle’s entire body of work. A colorful, radiant sculpture, it depicts a mother and child in a posture of joyful fusion.
The two works integrate perfectly into Arsac’s cellars,…
Mother Child and Le Soleil are the sweetest and most radiant expression of this mission: to transform pain into light, and the intimate into public art.
To discover, along with other artists, on our Art Vines page
https://chateau-arsac.com/art-contemporain-vigne-alliance-chateau-arsac/
