NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE
Structures for Life at MoMA PS1
Given that we just celebrated International Women’s Day, it feels like a perfect time to talk about and honor one of the greatest artists and feminist icons of all time: Niki de Saint Phalle. MOMA PS1 is hosting the first New York exhibition of her work, titled Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life. It will be on view from March 11 through September 6, 2021. The show features over 200 works (including sculpture, prints, drawings, jewelry, films, and archival materials) that the artist produced from the mid-60s until she died in 2002, with a particular emphasis on works made to transform environments, individuals, and society.
Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) was an interdisciplinary artist known for creating work that engaged crucial social and political issues. She was the only female member of the Nouveau Réalisme group. Her second husband, artist Jean Tinguely was also a member. She is primarily known for using simple forms and bright colors in most of her works and her Nanas, brightly colored sculptures of voluptuous women.
Saint Phalle grew up in France and New York. She didn’t have an easy childhood, and she struggled with mental health from a young age. Her problems drew her to art, and becoming an artist wasn’t in her early plan. Her art offers insight into her internal demons and psychological state (for example, her work is loaded with snakes that allude to a traumatic childhood summer, which she called the “Summer of Snakes”). Saint Phalle gained attention during the early 1960s with her Tirs. They are works she would create by firing a gun at plaster reliefs to release paint. In the late 60s, she began experimenting with sculpture and architecture. Her practice soon expanded to include architectural projects, sculpture gardens, books, prints, films, theater sets, clothing, jewelry, and perfume.
Saint Phalle was a self-taught artist. She never studied art and rejected academic study. Nevertheless, she was cultured. She was intensely aware of the contemporary art around her (proof is the visible influence of artists like Jackson Pollock or Antoni Gaudí in her work.) At 25, she visited Barcelona and became obsessed with Parc Güell and the architecture of Antoni Gaudí. From that moment on, creating park-like displays became her dream. This dream would eventually become her famous Tarot Garden, an enormous architectural park in the Tuscan countryside, which she worked on from the late 1970s until her death. The garden’s structures are based on the 22 Major Arcana of the tarot deck and served to create an alternate reality for those who entered it or, as she put it, a park is a place “where you could have a new kind of life, to just be free.” The exhibition also examines her other large-scale sculptures and architectural projects, such as Le rêve de l’oiseau (1968-71); Golem, a playground in Jerusalem (1971-72); Le Dragon de Knokke, a children’s playhouse in Belgium (1973-75); and La Fontaine Stravinsky (1983.) The exhibition includes numerous models, drawings, never-before-seen archival materials, and photographs.
Saint Phalle was an incredible artist, never afraid to speak up and address essential subjects such as women’s rights, climate change, or HIV/AIDS awareness. New Yorkers now have an opportunity to immerse themselves in her world. Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life runs at MOMA PS1 through September 6, 2021.
