Niki went on to develop ideas for the imagery that was to carry the special mystic meanings, energies, and associations of the tarot to the site of her planned contemplative, sculpture garden and began a close and long friendship with assistant/collaborator Ricardo Menon, who worked with her for many years.
In 1978-79 land was cleared and foundations dug at the chosen site in Tuscany formally named "Giardino dei Tarocchi". She made her first models related to the Tarot figures that was to be represented in the Garden.
She became interested in the idea of linear sculpture-drawings in space and made the "Skinnys". This series of totem-like pieces often had coloured lights and elements suspended by a string. She also started to design furniture and other functional objects with snakes and figurative forms.
Niki lived for a while in Malibu in California and conceived a series of maquettes based on new ideas for architectural fantasies. These works were first exhibited at Gimpel & Weitzenhffer in New York and then in the United States while she had her first solo show in Japan at Gallery Watari in Tokyo.
In 1980-81, the symbols of the Tarot served as a guide in the creation of the Garden. Construction began on the first architectural sculpture "La Papesse", representing female creativity and strength. Niki spent the major part of the next ten years on that site receiving assistance from many friends and supporters. Jean Tinguely together with Rico Weber and Seppi Imhof began welding the iron understructures for the first group of enlarged Tarot Figures; this work involving special engineering skills for each piece, was taken over and completed by Dutch artist Doc Wilsen. Local residents were hired and over the years, their efforts proved to be important to the project's success.
The Ulm Museum organized the first retrospective devoted to her graphic work. She permanently installed the sculpture "Poète et sa Muse" at University of Ulm and was honoured with a major retrospective at the Musée National d'art moderne, Centre George Pompidou in Paris that also travelled to Austria, Germany and Sweden.
She had a show organized at the experimental space called SPACE NIKI in Tokyo. Established by Yoko Masuda, SPACE NIKI was an impressive collection of work in all media, films and related material that was meant to further the understanding of the artist and her work. (More next page)
Franco-American artist Niki de Saint-Phalle died on May 21 2002 in San Diego, California, at 71 following a long illness due to years of exposure to toxic fumes produced by polyester while making her famous "Nanas" resin sculptures.
Niki, who was the widow of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, was born Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint Phalle at Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, the second of five children of Jeanne Jacqueline, née Harper and Andre Marie de Saint Phalle, a banker who lost all his money in the Wall Street crash of 1929.
In 1933, she lived with her parents in Greenwich, Connecticut, and spent most summers in France with her American maternal grandfather Donald Harper at his chateau "Filerval" with gardens designed by Le Nôtre. These two ways of life started to influence her thinking.
After 1937, her family moved to New York city. Marie-Agnes, now called Niki, first studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart while her first visual influences were comic books and visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but throughout her youth she went on to face serious psychological problems after she had been sexually abused by her father when she was eleven.
After frequenting several educational institutions, she became interested in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, and the Greek tragedies while studying at the Brearly School. She also discovered Russian authors and passionately read all the novels by Dostoievsky. She acted in school plays and began to write her own poetry.
In 1948 Niki worked as fashion model for Vogue, Life, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and other French and American magazines before eloping at 18 with Harry Mathews whom she married. She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and started to paint experimenting with different media and style while her husband studied music at Harvard University before becoming a writer. She gave birth to a daughter named Laura in April 1951 and decided to move to Paris to study theatre and acting.
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Niki travelled through France, Italy and Spain visiting museums and cathedrals which impressed her much but soon suffered a severe nervous breakdown in 1953 and had to be admitted in a psychiatric hospital in Nice breakdown. While recuperating she started to paint what she called her "problems". The more her mother hated what she was painting the more she felt excited to explore new artistic ways. She thus re-evaluated the direction of her life and began to seriously consider communicating through her art.
In 1954 in Paris, she was introduced to American painter Hugh Weiss who became her friend and mentor, encouraging her to continue painting in her self-taught style. She then moved to Majorca where her son Philip was born in May 1955 but she felt the urge to travel again and visited Madrid and Barcelona where she discovered Antonio Gaudi whose architectural works impressed her deeply.
She then felt that Gaudi had paved the way to many possibilities regarding the use of diverse material and object-trouves as structural elements in sculpture and architecture. In particular, Gaudi's "Parc Guell" was a true revelation that made her determined to one day create her own garden of joy combining art and nature.
After returning to Paris, Niki met Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely and his wife Eva Aeppli for the first time. Both encouraged her to pursue her goals while Tinguely helped her in welding an armature for her first sculpture.
Niki then became interested in the works of Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau, and Pablo Picasso and found some inspiration in the postman Joseph Ferdinand Cheval's crazy architecture called "Le Palais Idéal", in Hauterives, France.
Niki went on to live in Lans-en-Vercors in the French Alps with her family while her first solo exhibition of paintings made with elements and collages took place in St. Gall, Switzerland in 1956.
In 1959-60 she participated in an exhibition at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris that included works by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Raubert Raushenberg and Jasper Johns.
Separated from her husband, she set up her studio and concentrated on her work. Her assemblages took on an angry aspect- especially in a new series 'target' paintings with darts thrown at them.
At the end of 1960, she moved to 11 Impasse Rosin, Paris and lived with Jean Tinguely. They went on to work and assist each other on several projects. Through Tinguely, Niki met Pontus Hulten then director of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, who included her in major exhibitions organized at the time. Thanks to Hulten, the Moderna Museet acquired some of her most pivotal pieces throughout her career to form the most comprehensive collection of her work.
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As a result of her bicultural background and the direction in her own art, Niki became a kind of ambassador between the avant-gardes in France and the United States.
In 1961, Niki expanded on the 'target' paintings with a series of 'shooting' paintings or "tirs". It was through acts of destruction that these works were created-the assemblages being shot with a pistol, rifle or cannon by herself or others, producing spontaneous effects and the dispersion of colors. As they evolved, the "tirs" became larger, more elaborate in concept and included elements of spectacle and performance.
Pierre Restany, founder of the Nouveaux Realistes group, attended her first public "tir" and invited her to attend the activities of that group. Niki was then involved in the ideas, festivals and activities of the group which included Arman, Cesar, Christo, Gérard Deschamps, Francois Dufrène, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Mimmo Rotella, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques de La Villeglé.
Niki's first solo exhibition in Paris took place at the Galerie J with assemblages, "tirs", and a public shooting area. She also took part in group shows in Europe and the United States and befriended American artists staying in Paris, such as Robert Raushenberg, Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers and his wife Clarice, and participated in various projects with them over the years.
She and Tinguely were introduced to Salvador Dali by Marcel Duchamp and while travelling to Spain with Tinguely for a celebration honoring Dali they made a life-size exploding bull with plaster, paper and fireworks for the arena at Figueras.
In 1963-64 she created a major "King Kong" "Tir" in Los Angeles, a work later acquired by the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. She and Tinguely then found an old country inn outside of Paris to live and work, l'Auberge du Cheval Blanc at Soisy- sur-Ecole.
At that time, Niki began to work on figurative reliefs -confrontational depictions of women, some giving birth or vivisectioned, and she created other figurative assemblages including freestanding dragons, monsters and brides, which were presented in her first solo show at Hanover Gallery in London.
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THE "NANAS"
In 1965-66, inspired by the pregnancy of her friend Clarisse Rivers, she began considering archetypal female figures in relation to her thinking on the position of women in society. Her updated version of 'everywoman' were named 'Nanas'. The first of these freely posed forms, made of papier-maché, 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 included her handwritten words in combination with her drawings of 'Nanas'. Encouraged by Iolas, she started a highly productive output of graphic work that accompanied exhibitions -invitations, posters, books and writings.
In 1966, Niki collaborated with Tinguely and Per Olof Ultlvedt on a large scale sculpture installation, "hon-en katedral" for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The outer form of "hon", which provoked immense public reaction, was a giant, reclining 'Nana', whose internal environment was entered from between her legs.
The interactive quality of the "hon" combined with a continued fascination with fantastic types of architecture insensified her yearn to see her own architectural dreams realized. She notably met Swiss artist Rico Weber during the construction of the "hon" and the next ten years, Weber became an important assistant /collaborator for both Niki and Jean Tinguely.
Niki went on to design decors and costumes for two theatrical productions -a ballet by Roland Petit, and an adaptation of Aristophanes' play "Lysistrata".
In 1967-68, together with Tinguely she received a commission from the French Government to make a sculpture for the "Expo '67" in Montreal in Canada. Their collaboration, "Le Paradis Fantastique", a combination of their distinct styles, was installed on the roof of the French Pavilion.
After "Expo'67", her attempts to find a permanent home for the sculpture in either France or the United States failed but through the efforts of Pontus Hulten, the piece was saved from destruction and acquired by the Moderna Museet. Working on the "Paradis Fantastique", she was exposed to toxic fumes produced by polyester. This and other materials used in her work caused severe damage to her lungs that resulted in recurrent health problems.
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Niki's first retrospective, "Les Nanas au Pouvoir", was organized at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. She had created a number of new pieces for the show that emphasized a direction toward architectural and functional design -"Nana Dream House" and "Nana Fountain", and the placement of elements to form a sculptural visual work called "The Bride's Dream". Niki wrote a story that she adapted with Rainer Von Diez into a play, ICH. She designed decors, costumes, and poster for the production that was presented at the Staatstheater, Kassel in Germany in June 1968.
She also designed 'Nana' inflatables, a multiple in plastic, that were produced and distributed in the United States and published a series of semi-autobiographical serigraphs that were executed in a pictographic style combining images, letters and writing into a complete narrative.
In 1969-70, her first permanent architectural project was a private commission for a summer residence in the South of France. The project consisted of three buildings, each uniquely shaped, detailed and painted, completed in 1971. She pursued her involvement in 'fantastic' architectural projects requiring her total commitment in all stages of planning and execution. Her sculpture "Black Venus" was acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and exhibited in the museum's show, "Contemporary American Sculpture, Selection II", in April 1969.
She travelled to India and Egypt and these cultural experiences broadened the context of visual associations used in her work. Tinguely began to work on his major sculptural project, "La Tete" or "Le Cyclope", in Milly-la Foret, France. Declared a monument of France, this work in progress for over twenty years involved the collaboration of many artists.
Niki participated in the "10th anniversary of the Nouveau Realistes Festival" in Milan in November 1970. She notably shot an outdoor tir as part of the 'action spectacles'.
Niki married Jean Tinguely on July 13, 1971 and the couple travelled to Morocco. . Shortly after, she received a public commission to create a an architecture for children in Jerusalem called "Golem", a giant monster head with tongue slides which was completed in 1972. The following year she received a private commission to build an architecture for children called "Dragon", in Belgium.
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In 1972 she began a productive association in France with art fabricator Haligon for her large scale sculptures and work in editions. She also made her first jewelry design for GEM Montebello Laboratory, Milan.
She then exhibited new sculptural work "Devouring Mothers" and the following year "Les Funerailles du Père". These works were based on ideas of a child's perspective of estrangement from the world of adults.
Niki also acted in a film titled "Daddy" that she wrote, produced and directed with Peter Whitehead. The movie was a surreal, psychological exploration of a relationship between a father and a tri-part character of the daughter as child , adolescent and adult. The official premiere took place in September 1973 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's "11th New York Film Festival".
In 1974, Niki built three large scale' Nanas' for a permanent site near the town hall in Hanover in Germany. The city named them Sophie, Charlotte and Caroline in honor of three historically distinguished women from Hanover.
She exhibited maquettes of realized and unrealized architectural projects and created artist book and invitation to accompany the show before she was hospitalized with a serious lung ailment and was forced to live in the Swiss mountains to regain her health. There she met a friend she had known in New York in the 1950's, Marella Caracciolo Agnelli, to whom she confided her ultimate dream-to someday build a sculpture garden based on her interpretations of symbols from the Tarot.
Her friend's brothers, Carlo and Nicola Caracciolo, offered a parcel of their land in Tuscany in Italy as a site for her dream. The massive undertaking of the garden notably consumed her thoughts and energies for nearly twenty years.
Between 1975 and 1977 she wrote, directed, produced and acted in the film "Un Rêve Plus Long que la Nuit" (A dream longer than night). The production included the participation of her daughter Laura Condominas, Jean Tinguely, Daniel Spoeri, Lunguinbul, Eva Aeppli, Marina Karella, Andrée Putman, and others. In 1975, her eighteen element sculptural tableau "Last Night I Had a Dream" was installed on the exterior of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, for an art festival.
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Niki went on to develop ideas for the imagery that was to carry the special mystic meanings, energies, and associations of the tarot to the site of her planned contemplative, sculpture garden and began a close and long friendship with assistant/collaborator Ricardo Menon, who worked with her for many years.
In 1978-79 land was cleared and foundations dug at the chosen site in Tuscany formally named "Giardino dei Tarocchi". She made her first models related to the Tarot figures that was to be represented in the Garden.
She became interested in the idea of linear sculpture-drawings in space and made the "Skinnys". This series of totem-like pieces often had coloured lights and elements suspended by a string. She also started to design furniture and other functional objects with snakes and figurative forms.
Niki lived for a while in Malibu in California and conceived a series of maquettes based on new ideas for architectural fantasies. These works were first exhibited at Gimpel & Weitzenhffer in New York and then in the United States while she had her first solo show in Japan at Gallery Watari in Tokyo.
In 1980-81, the symbols of the Tarot served as a guide in the creation of the Garden. Construction began on the first architectural sculpture "La Papesse", representing female creativity and strength. Niki spent the major part of the next ten years on that site receiving assistance from many friends and supporters. Jean Tinguely together with Rico Weber and Seppi Imhof began welding the iron understructures for the first group of enlarged Tarot Figures; this work involving special engineering skills for each piece, was taken over and completed by Dutch artist Doc Wilsen. Local residents were hired and over the years, their efforts proved to be important to the project's success.
The Ulm Museum organized the first retrospective devoted to her graphic work. She permanently installed the sculpture "Poète et sa Muse" at University of Ulm and was honoured with a major retrospective at the Musée National d'art moderne, Centre George Pompidou in Paris that also travelled to Austria, Germany and Sweden.
She had a show organized at the experimental space called SPACE NIKI in Tokyo. Established by Yoko Masuda, SPACE NIKI was an impressive collection of work in all media, films and related material that was meant to further the understanding of the artist and her work. (More next page)
In 1982-83, she created fragrance that bore her name for the Jaqueline Cochran Company in New York. She designed distinctive blue and gold bottles and packaging with logo of entwined serpents and made a promotional tour across the United States for the perfume. The money from the perfume went to finance the Garden.
Niki collaborated with Tinguely to create a foundation for the City of Paris on a site beside the Centre George Pompidou. They combined their sculptural elements in a fluid, moving setting, producing a joyous spontaneity-an apt homage to Igor Stravinsky for whom the fountain wass named.
Niki created a permanent sculpture named "Sun God" for the University of California at San Diego as part of the Stuart Collection. She designed a print for a project to support an alternative art space, the Temporary Contemporary in Los Angeles. The work, in the form of a pictographic letter, expressed her early awareness and concern for those afflicted by AIDS while she continued to be involved in efforts to reverse the effects of ignorance and bias which allow this fatal virus to spread.
She then suffered recurring, debilitating attacks of rheumatoid arthritis before she exhibited the "Skinnys" at Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer in New York and at Gimpel Fils in London. She then moved into the "Empress", the Sphinx structure at the Tarot Garden that was to be her home and studio for the next seven years during a period of intense work of completing the Garden.
Between 1985 and 1987, she spent most of her time on site of the Garden, where many of the major works were nearing completion. Works based on her Tarot figures, accompanied by an artist book, were exhibited at Gimpel Fils in London and at Gimpel& Weitzenhoffer in NewYork.
The Victoria Albert Museum in London acquired one of her perfume bottles capped with entwined serpents while she produced a series of flower vases in the shape of various animals. She then met Marcelo Zitelli who became an important assistant/collaborator.
In collaboration with Dr. Silvio Barandun, she wrote and illustrated the book "AIDS: You Can't Catch it Holding Hands". This informative text, presented in a positive and compassionate format, was published in seven languages.
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Niki then received a commission from Mrs. Helen Schneider to create a fountain called "Snake Tree", for the Schneider Children's Hospital, in Long Island, New York and had major retrospectives at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturtiftung in Munich, and at the Nassau County museum of Fine Art, Long Island, New York.
In 1989-90, she created with Tinguely the "Fontaine Chateau Chinon", commissioned by the French President, Francois Mitterand and was represented in Paris by JGM Gallery and Gallery de France. These galleries organized a number of exhibits that focussed on different periods in her career.
She then started to use of bronze in new series of sculpture works derived from ancient Egyptian deities and continued to develop images that had long interested and impressed her, including' Nana' fountains, Tarot figures, phallic-like obelisks, skulls, 'Skinny' lamps, and a series of pictorial reliefs made in response to the killing of endangered species.
The experience of the Tarot Garden carried over in her use of materials, particularly brilliantly coloured or mirrored mosaics. After the death of Ricardo Menon, her assistant/collaborator with whom she had shared a unique relationship, she collaborated with her son Philip Mathews on an animated film based on her AIDS book. This film, drawings for the film, and a revised edition of the AIDS book, published by Agence Francaise de lutte contre le sida, were exhibited at the Musée des ARTS Decoratifs, Paris in November 1991. She also designed a giant kite "L'Oiseau Amoureux" for a worldwide exhibition of artists' kite organized by the Goethe Institute in Japan.
In 1991, she worked on "Le Temple Idéal", a place for worship for all religions. This architecture was originally conceived in the early 1970's as a hopeful alternative to the religious intolerance she observed while working in Jerusalem. She then received a commission from the city of Nimes in France, to build this architectural sculpture. Because of political problems, this project was never realized. Jean Tinguely died in Switzerland in August. In his honor, she made her first kinetic sculptures called "Meta-Tinguelys".
in 1992-93, the Kunst und Ausstellunghalle in Bonn organized a large restropective while she exhibited in McLellan Galleries in Glasgow, the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Musée D'Art et d'Histoire in Fribourg. She installed a fountain titled "Oiseau Amoureux" in Duisburg in Germany, and created a sculpture for the Olympic Museum in Lausanne called "Les Footballeurs".
In 1994-95, she moved to California, where she lived and worked, and produced a series of silkscreen, "California Diary" for Kornfeld editions. While she showed her works in the James Goodman & Maxwell Davidson Galleries in New York, Peter Schamoni made a long feature film about Niki entitled "Who is the Monster, You or Me".
In 1996-1998, the Garden first opened to the public during the month of July and Niki worked on her autobiography. Architect Mario Botta built a gate/entrance to the Garden. In collaboration with Mario Botta, Niki worked on a project to build a sculpture park for children representing the arrival of Noah and the Arch to the promised land. The official opening of the Tarot Garden to the Public took place on May 15, 1998.
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