Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French-American

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monumental sculptors, Saint Phalle was also known for her social commitment and work. She had a difficult and traumatic childhood and a much-disrupted education, which she wrote about many decades later. After an early marriage and two children, she began creating art in a naïve, experimental style. She first received worldwide attention for angry, violent assemblages which had been shot by firearms. These evolved into ''Nanas'', light-hearted, whimsical, colorful, large-scale sculptures of animals, monsters, and female figures. Her most comprehensive work was the ''

Tarot Garden The ''Tarot Garden'' (Italian: ''Il Giardino dei Tarocchi'', French: ''Le Jardin des Tarots'') is a sculpture garden based on the esoteric tarot, created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) in Pescia Fiorentina, loc ...

'', a large

sculpture garden A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings. A sculpture garden may be private, owned by a ...

containing numerous works ranging up to house-sized creations. Saint Phalle's idiosyncratic style has been called "

outsider art Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates e ...

"; she had no formal training in art, but associated freely with many other contemporary artists, writers, and composers. Her books and abundant correspondence were written and brightly-colored in a childish style, but throughout her lifetime she addressed many controversial and important global problems in the bold way which children often question and call out unacceptable neglect. Throughout her creative career, she collaborated with other well-known artists such as

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

Larry Rivers Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...

, composer

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, and architect

Mario Botta Mario Botta (born 1 April 1943) is a Swiss architect. Career Botta designed his first building, a two-family house at Morbio Superiore in Ticino, at age 16. He graduated from the Università Iuav di Venezia (1969). While the arrangements of spa ...

, as well as dozens of less-known artists and craftspersons. For several decades, she worked especially closely with

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

kinetic artist

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art s ...

, who also became her second husband. In her later years, she suffered from multiple chronic health problems attributed to repeated exposure to airborne glass fibers and petrochemical fumes from the experimental materials she had used in her pioneering artworks, but she continued to create prolifically until the end of her life. A critic has observed that Saint Phalle's "insistence on exuberance, emotion and sensuality, her pursuit of the figurative and her bold use of color have not endeared her to everyone in a minimalist age". She was well known in Europe, but her work was little-seen in the US, until her final years in San Diego. Another critic said: "The French-born, American-raised artist is one of the most significant female and feminist artists of the 20th century, and one of the few to receive recognition in the male-dominated art world during her lifetime".

Early life and education (1930–1948)

Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle was born on October 29, 1930, in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a Departments of France, département in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner Banlieue, suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the e ...

, near

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Her father was Count André-Marie de Saint Phalle (1906–1967), a French banker, and her mother was an American, named Jeanne Jacqueline Harper (1908–1980).According to the Saint Phalle's wedding announcement in ''Town and Country'' (1927), Jeanne Jacqueline Harper, known as Jacqueline, was a daughter of Donald Harper, an American living in Paris, France, and his wife, the former Jeanne Bernard. Marie-Agnès was the second of five children, and her cousins included the French novelist Thérèse de Saint Phalle (Baroness Jehan de Drouas), her double cousin, daughter of Count Alexandre de Saint Phalle (brother of Count André-Marie) and his wife Helene Georgia Harper (sister of Jeanne Jacqueline). Another cousin was the American-born investment banker, lawyer, and former

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

agent

Thibaut de Saint Phalle Thibaut de Saint Phalle (July 23, 1918 – June 16, 2015) was an American investment banker, lawyer, and educator who served as a director of the Export–Import Bank of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Early life and education de Saint Ph ...

, who served in the

Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President ...

as a director of the

Export–Import Bank of the United States The Export–Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the official export credit agency (ECA) of the United States federal government. Operating as a wholly owned federal government corporation, the bank "assists in financing and facilitating ...

(1977-1981). Marie-Agnès was born one year after

Black Tuesday The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, and the French economy was also suffering in the aftermath of the infamous

stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especia ...

that initiated the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Within months of her birth, her father's finance company closed, and her parents moved with her oldest brother to the suburbs of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

; she was left with her maternal grandparents in

Nièvre Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019. Around 1933, she rejoined her parents in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

; her father had found work as manager of the American branch of the Saint Phalle family's bank. In 1937, the family moved to East 88th Street and

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

in the affluent

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

neighborhood of New York City. By this time, Marie-Agnès was known as "Niki", the name she would use from then on. Niki grew up in a strict

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

environment, against which she repeatedly rebelled. Her mother was temperamental and violent, beating the younger children, and forcing them to eat even if they were not hungry. Both of her younger siblings, Elizabeth and Richard de Saint Phalle, would later commit suicide as adults. The atmosphere at home was tense; the only place where Niki felt comfortable and warm was in the kitchen, overseen by a black cook. Decades later, Niki would reveal that she had suffered years of

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

from her father, starting at the age of 11. She would later refer to the environment where she grew up as ''enfer'' ("hell"). She spent most of her childhood and adolescence in New York City, and summers in Connecticut or Long Island. She frequently returned to France to visit relatives, becoming fluent in both French and

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

. In 1937, she attended school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart on East 91st Street in Manhattan. After she was expelled in 1941, she rejoined her maternal grandparents, who had moved to

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, and she briefly attended the public school there. She returned to the Upper East Side and studied there at the

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9– ...

from 1942 to 1944. There, she met

Jackie Matisse Jackie Matisse (1931 – 17 May 2021), also known as Jaqueline Matisse Monnier, was a French artist. She was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the eldest of the three children of Pierre Matisse and Alexina Duchamp. For a time she was married to the Fr ...

, granddaughter of artist

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

; they would become lifelong friends. However, Saint Phalle was dismissed for painting in red the

fig leaves ''Fig Leaves'' is a 1926 American silent comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, released by Fox Film Corporation, and starring George O'Brien and Olive Borden. The film had a sequence, a fashion show, that was filmed in 2-strip Technicolor. ...

on the school's classical statuary. Despite this, she would later say it was there “

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

I became a feminist. They inculcated in us that women can and must accomplish great things.” She was then enrolled in a

convent school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...

Suffern, New York Suffern is a village that was incorporated in 1796 in the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. Suffern is located 31 miles northwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 census, Suffern's population was 10,723. but was expelled. She finally graduated from the

Oldfields School Oldfields School is a college preparatory school for girls in grades 8 through 12 in Sparks Glencoe, Maryland. It was founded in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1867 by Anna Austen McCulloch and is the oldest girls' boarding school in Maryland. ...

Glencoe, Maryland Glencoe is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Glencoe was listed on the National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's off ...

in 1947. During her late teenage years, Saint Phalle became a

fashion model A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Thoug ...

; at the age of 18, she appeared on the cover of ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' (26 September 1949) and, three years later, on the November 1952 cover of ''

French Vogue The French edition of ''Vogue'' magazine, formerly called ''Vogue Paris'', is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1920. History 1920–54 The French edition of ''Vogue'' was first issued on 15 June 1920, the first editor-in-chief ...

''. She also appeared in the pages of ''

Elle ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

'' and ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

''. "At one point,

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...

spotted Saint Phalle walking down Fifty-seventh Street, purseless and in a cowboy getup. In an interview quoted by the show’s curator, Ruba Katrib, in the catalogue, Steinem recalled thinking, 'That is the first free woman I have ever seen in real life. I want to be just like her.'"

First marriage and children (1949–1960)

Niki de Saint Phalle (1964) by Erling Mandelmann

At the age of 18, Saint Phalle married

Harry Mathews Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer, the author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. Mathews was also a translator of the French language. Life Born in New York City to an ...

, whom she had first met at the age of 11 (he was 12) through her father. Six years later, they again encountered each other by chance on a train to Princeton, and soon became a couple. Initially, they had a

civil ceremony A civil, or registrar, ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the United Kingdom, this person is typically called a registrar. In the United States, civil ceremonies may be performed ...

on 6 June 1949 in

New York City Hall New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...

. At the urging of Niki's mother, they also had a religious rite at the French Church of New York the following February. Although her parents accepted the union, her husband's family objected to her Catholic background and cut them off financially, causing them to resort to occasional

shoplifting Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items ...

. They moved to

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

so Mathews could study music at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Saint Phalle began to paint in oils and

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

s but aimed to pursue a career in acting. Their first child, Laura, was born in April 1951. In 1952, the small family moved to Paris, where Harry continued his studies in

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

at I’Ecole Normale de Musique. The new parents were casual, even negligent in their care, but their children would benefit from better financial circumstances after Mathews received an inheritance. Saint Phalle rejected the staid, conservative values of her family, which dictated domestic positions for wives and particular strict rules of conduct. Poet

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

recalled that Saint Phalle's artistic pursuits were rejected in turn by relatives: her uncle "French banker Count Alexandre de Saint-Phalle, ... reportedly takes a dim view of her artistic activities", Ashbery observed.According to John Ashbery, Alexandre de Saint-Phalle was the brother of Niki de Saint Phalle's father and also married to her mother's sister, the former Helen Georgia Harper, as explained in "Jacqueline Harper Marries Count: American Lawyer's Daughter Marries Andre de St. Phalle at Château de Fillerval", ''The New York Times'', 7 June 1927. See John Ashbery, ''Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles, 1957–1987'' (Carcanet, 1989). However, after marrying young and becoming a mother, she found herself living the same

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

lifestyle that she had attempted to escape. For about a decade, the family would wander around France and Europe, living a

bohemian lifestyle Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties. It involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits. In this context, bohemians may be wanderers, a ...

. In

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, Saint Phalle and Mathews would have separate

affair An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...

s in 1953; after she attacked her husband's mistress, she took an overdose of

sleeping pill Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...

s, but they had little effect because she was manic at the time. When Harry discovered a stash of knives, razors, and scissors under a mattress, he took his wife to a mental clinic in Nice, where she was treated with

electroshock therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...

and

insulin shock therapy Insulin shock therapy or insulin coma therapy was a form of psychiatric treatment in which patients were repeatedly injected with large doses of insulin in order to produce daily comas over several weeks.Neustatter WL (1948) ''Modern psychiatry ...

. Liberated from routine household work, she focused on creating artwork instead and improved enough to be discharged in six weeks. Around the same time, her husband abandoned his music studies and started to write his first novel, eventually switching to a career in writing. While in Paris on a modeling assignment in 1954, Saint Phalle was introduced to the American-French painter , who became both her friend and artistic mentor. He encouraged her to continue painting in her self-taught style. In September 1954, the small family moved to

Deià Deià is a municipality and small coastal village in the Serra de Tramuntana, which forms the northern ridge of the Spanish island of Mallorca. It is located about north of Valldemossa, and it is known for its literary and musical residents. ...

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

, Spain, where her son Philip was born in May 1955. While in Spain, Saint Phalle read the works of

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

and visited

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, where she became deeply affected by the work of architect

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalan architect from Spain known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, ''sui generis'' style. Most are located in Barcel ...

. Gaudí's influence opened many previously unimagined possibilities for Saint Phalle, especially 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 Parc Güell ( ca, Parc Güell ; es, Parque Güell) is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Carmel Hill belongs to the mountain range of Collserola – th ...

" which would inspire her to one day create her own garden-based artwork that would combine

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

istic and

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...

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. In 1956, she met the Swiss artist

and his wife, artist

Eva Aeppli Eva Aeppli (2 May 1925 – 4 May 2015) was a Swiss artist. Personal life Born on 2 May 1925 in Zofingen, Switzerland, Aeppli spent her childhood in Basel where she attended the School of Decorative Arts. Her father was a Waldorf educator and c ...

. Saint Phalle attempted her first large-scale sculpture, enlisting Tinguely to make an iron armature, which she covered with

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

and paint. In the late 1950s, Saint Phalle became ill with

hyperthyroidism Hyperthyroidism is the condition that occurs due to excessive production of thyroid hormones by the thyroid gland. Thyrotoxicosis is the condition that occurs due to excessive thyroid hormone of any cause and therefore includes hyperthyroidism ...

and

tachycardia Tachycardia, also called tachyarrhythmia, is a heart rate that exceeds the normal resting rate. In general, a resting heart rate over 100 beats per minute is accepted as tachycardia in adults. Heart rates above the resting rate may be normal (su ...

, which were eventually treated by an operation in 1958. In 1959, Saint Phalle first encountered multiple artworks by

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Daniel Spoerri Daniel Spoerri (born 27 March 1930) is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania. Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by in ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

, and

. Seeing these avant-garde works triggered her "first great artistic crisis". She switched from oil painting to

s and gloss paint, and began to produce assemblages from household objects and castoffs. By this time, she had decided to dedicate herself fully to creating art, free from the obligations of everyday family life. In 1960, she and Harry separated by mutual agreement, and her husband moved to another apartment with their two children. At that time, her daughter Laura was nine, and her son Philip was five years old. Mathews would occasionally buy artworks from his wife as a way of providing her modest support, and she would visit him and the children periodically. She soon moved in with Jean Tinguely, who by then had separated from his own wife, Eva Aeppli. He was becoming well known for his

kinetic sculptures Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to: * Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion * Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to its motion Art and enter ...

made from cast-off mechanisms and junk. In many ways, the pair were opposites, and sometimes had violent disagreements, and frequent

s with others. They would live together intermittently and collaborate closely on artistic projects for over a decade before marrying in 1971. Two years later they separated, but remained on good terms and continued to collaborate on various projects up through Tinguely's death in 1991. In 1960, Tinguely introduced her to

Pontus Hultén Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén (21 June 1924 – 26 October 2006) was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century. He was the pioneering f ...

, then the director of the

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...

(Modern Museum) in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

. Over the next few years, he would invite her to participate in important exhibitions, and acquire her artworks for the museum. He would later become the first director of the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

in Paris (1974–1981), where he continued to be influential in promoting wider recognition of Saint Phalle's artwork.

''Tirs'' (1961–1963)

Saint Phalle created a series of works in the early 1960s she called '' Tirs'' ("Shootings" or "Shots"). The series began as "target pictures", with painted

bullseye Bullseye or Bull's Eye may refer to: Symbols * ◎ (Unicode U+25CE BULLSEYE), in the Geometric Shapes Unicode block * (Unicode U+0298 LATIN LETTER BILABIAL CLICK), the phonetic symbol for bilabial click Animals and plants * Bull's Eye, ''Euryo ...

targets prominently displayed within her painted collages, such as ''Saint Sébastien (Portrait of My Lover / Portrait of My Beloved / Martyr nécessaire)'' (1961), or ''Assemblage (Figure with Dartboard Head)'' (1962). She would invite viewers to throw darts at the

dartboard Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the boar ...

s embedded as faces in her figurative assemblages, which were influenced by the targets painted by her friend

. Soon, she would start by embedding knives, razor blades, scissors, eggbeaters, baby-doll arms, and other household items in

covering a large board, along with bags filled with colorful paints, cans of

spray paint Aerosol paint (commonly spray paint) is paint that comes in a sealed, pressurized container and is released in an aerosol spray when a valve button is depressed. Aerosol painting is one form of spray painting; it leaves a smooth, even coat, unlike ...

, and sometimes

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

. Also, she might suspend bags of paint or cans of spray paint in front of the white-painted assemblage. She would then repeatedly shoot the assemblage with a

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

, or miniature

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

, causing the liquids to "bleed" or to spray out. Her first staged public shooting event was in February 1961, attended by Jean Tinguely,

, and

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (24 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning ...

, among others. Her early art performance/events took place in the "Impasse Ronsin", a trash-strewn back alley in the

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

district of Paris. It was the site of the improvised studios of

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian Sculpture, sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of ...

, Jean Tinguely,

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

, Les Lalanne, and other experimental artists in the 1950s and 1960s. As founder of the ''

Nouveau réalisme Nouveau réalisme (French: new realism) refers to an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in the Apollinaire gallery in Milan. Pierre Restany wrot ...

'' ("New Realist") movement, Restany asked Saint Phalle to join this group of French artists upon seeing her performance; she would become the only female member of this group. The extreme expressions of violence attracted media attention, catapulting Saint Phalle into the ranks of

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

artistic rebellion. The ''Tirs'' combined

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

body art Body art is art made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. Body art covers a wide spectrum including tattoos, body piercings, scarification, and body painting. Body art may include performance art, body art is likewise utilized for investiga ...

, sculpture, and painting, in the artistic ferment of the 1960s. Saint Phalle began to present variations on this process in art museums and galleries, and recruited other artists to join in staged public "

happenings A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

", where some of her colleagues would also pull the trigger. At American performances, she would meet many other emerging artists, including

Ad Reinhardt Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement centere ...

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in M ...

, and

Ed Kienholz Edward Ralph Kienholz (October 23, 1927 – June 10, 1994) was an American Installation art, installation artist and assemblage (art), assemblage sculpture, sculptor whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he ...

. She also organized indoors events at art galleries, where she would invite visitors to shoot at her assemblages. Saint Phalle participated in Spoerri's "Edition MAT" (''Multiplication d’Art Transformable'') program of multiple artwork editions, supplying simpler versions of her ''Tirs'' works, with detailed instructions on how to shoot them with a

.22 rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smoo ...

. Saint Phalle carefully documented her artistic process in the ''Tirs'' with writing, still photos, and films. She would attach common readymade artifacts to a board, attach bags of colorful paint, whitewash everything, and then dip the assemblage into milk-white plaster. Once it had dried, the collection was ready for shooting by a purchaser. In June 1961, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely joined Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg in a concert-happening called ''Variations II'', orchestrated by avant-garde American composer

, and held at the American Embassy in Paris. While

David Tudor David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music. Life and career Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan ...

played Cage compositions on the piano, the artists created their works of art on stage as the audience watched the proceedings. In August 1961,

introduced Saint Phalle and Tinguely to

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

, who invited them to create a life-sized exploding bull with fireworks (''Toro de Fuego''). This ''Homenage a Dalí'' ("Homage to Dalí") was wheeled out after the end of a traditional Spanish

bullfight Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...

, in

Figueras Figueres (, ; , es, Figueras, ) is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museum ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, Spain, and exploded in front of the audience. In 1962, she had her first one-woman show in New York City, at the gallery run by

Alexander Iolas Alexander Iolas (March 26, 1908 – June 8, 1987) was an Egyptian-born Greek-American art gallerist and an significant collector of modern art works, who advanced the careers of René Magritte and many other artists. He established the modern mode ...

. It included ''Homage to Le Facteur Cheval'', a shooting gallery where visitors could fire on one of her ''Tirs'' installations. This began her long working relationship with the gallerist, eventually comprising at least 17 exhibitions of her work. An exclusive 1962 open-air shooting event in the Malibu Hills above Los Angeles was attended by Hollywood celebrities, including

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...

and

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director ...

. Attendees from the art world included John Cage,

Ed Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...

, and

Leo Castelli Leo Castelli (born Leo Krausz; September 4, 1907 – August 21, 1999) was an Italian-American art dealer who originated the contemporary art gallery system. His gallery showcased contemporary art for five decades. Among the movements which ...

, while Ed Kienholz helped to manage the firearms. In most of these public performances, Saint Phalle was impeccably dressed in a fashionable white

pantsuit A pantsuit, also known as a trouser suit outside the United States, is a woman's suit of clothing consisting of pants and a matching or coordinating coat or jacket. Formerly, the prevailing fashion for women included some form of a coat, pai ...

. By 1963, she had taken the series to galleries in New York City and Los Angeles, inviting the public to participate in the shootings. In Los Angeles, she shot a large-scale ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

'' assemblage she had constructed, paint-splattering the embedded sculpted faces of politicians such as

John F Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

, and

Charles De Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

, with

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

and

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

as well. This work would later be acquired by the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and would mark her transition to a new series of fantastic monsters, animals, and female figures. Throughout her career, snakes, birds, and dragons would become recurring symbols in her artworks. While in New York City, Saint Phalle and Tinguely stayed in the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of Ch ...

in 1962, and again in 1964-1965. In 1963, the couple purchased an old hotel, called ''Auberge au Cheval Blanc'' ("White Horse Inn"), in Soisy-sur-Ecole, southeast of Paris. It had previously been a hotel, a café, a cinema, and even a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

, but the new owners converted it into artistic studios which they would share over the decades to come.

''Nanas'' (1964–1973)

Saint Phalle next explored the various roles of women, in what would develop into her best-known and most prolific series of sculptures. She started making life-size dolls of women, such as brides and mothers giving birth, monsters, and large heads. Initially, they were made of soft materials, such as wool, cloth, and

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

, but they soon evolved into plaster over a wire framework and plastic toys, some painted all white. As the series developed into larger monumental works, Saint Phalle used composite

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

-reinforced polyester plastic (also known as FRP or GRP) decorated with multiple bright-colored

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...

paints. She also used

polyurethane foam Polyurethane products have many uses. Over three quarters of the global consumption of polyurethane products is in the form of foams, with flexible and rigid types being roughly equal in market size. In both cases, the foam is usually behind othe ...

in many of her early sculptures. These innovative materials enabled the construction of colorful, large-scale sculptures with new ease and fluidity of form. Saint Phalle unknowingly used dangerous fabrication and painting processes that released airborne glass fibers and chemicals, including

styrene Styrene () is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH=CH2. This derivative of benzene is a colorless oily liquid, although aged samples can appear yellowish. The compound evaporates easily and has a sweet smell, although high concen ...

epoxy Epoxy is the family of basic components or cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional group is also coll ...

, and toxic

solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...

s. In 1963–64, she created a series of sculptures protesting stereotypical societal roles for women, as child bearers, devouring mothers,

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

es, and

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

s. Some of her early artworks from this ''Bride'' period depicted ghostly, skeletal brides dressed in white, which have been compared to

Miss Havisham Miss Havisham is a character in the Charles Dickens novel ''Great Expectations'' (1861). She is a wealthy spinster, once jilted at the altar, who insists on wearing her wedding dress for the rest of her life. She lives in a ruined mansion with ...

, an ethereal character in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' novel ''

Great Expectations ''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...

''. Over time, these figures became more joyful, whimsical, colorful, and larger in scale. Inspired by a collaborative drawing with American artist

of his wife, her

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

friend Clarice Price, Saint Phalle began to portray archetypal female figures with a more optimistic view of the position of women in society. ''Gwendoline'' (1965) was the first major sculpture in what would become a lifetime series of these works. The newer figures took on ecstatic dance poses and even acrobatic positions, such as

handstand __NOTOC__ A handstand is the act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. In a basic handstand, the body is held straight with arms and legs fully extended, with hands spaced approximately shoulder- ...

s and cartwheels. Saint Phalle's light-hearted figures have been compared to the joyful dancers of

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

and the sturdy female figures by

Gaston Lachaise Gaston Lachaise (March 19, 1882 – October 18, 1935) was a French-born sculptor, active in the early 20th century. A native of Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 re ...

Aristide Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University P ...

, and

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

. By 1965, she was calling her artistic expressions of the proverbial everywoman ''Nanas'', after a French slang word that is roughly equivalent to "broad", or "chick". The term also recalls the childish French taunt ''nananère''. The first of these freely-posed forms, made of papier-mâché, yarn, and cloth, were exhibited at the

Gallery in Paris in September 1965. During this show, she joined a type of tombola raffle organized by the Artist's Club of New York, whereby artworks were randomly left in coin-operated luggage lockers at

Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...

, and keys were offered for $10 each. For this show, Iolas also published Saint Phalle's first

artist book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

that included her handwritten text in combination with her drawings of ''Bananas''. Encouraged by Iolas, she started a highly productive output of graphics work that accompanied her exhibitions, which included

silk-screen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

ed prints, posters, books, and writings. In the years to come, she would publish multiple hand-lettered books, profusely illustrated with colorful drawings and diagrams, on topics such as

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

prevention and various periods in her life story. In 1966, Saint Phalle collaborated with

and Per Olof Ultvedt on a temporary indoor sculpture installation, ''Hon – en katedral'' (which means "She-a-

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

" in Swedish), filling a large temporary gallery in the

, in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden. During construction, Saint Phalle recruited Swiss art student , who had been working as a

dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ...

in the museum restaurant (in the following years, he would become a vital assistant and collaborator for both Saint Phalle and Tinguely). A team of 8 people worked strenuously for 40 days, first building a frame using metal

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or reinforcement steel, is a steel bar used as a Tension (physics), tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid the concr ...

, covering it with

chicken wire Chicken wire, or poultry netting, is a mesh of wire commonly used to fence in fowl, such as chickens, in a run or coop. It is made of thin, flexible, galvanized steel wire with hexagonal gaps. Available in 1 inch (about 2.5 cm) diameter, ...

, sheathing it with fabric attached with smelly

animal glue Animal glue is an adhesive that is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissue in a process called rendering. In addition to being used as an adhesive it is used for coating and sizing, in decorative composition ornaments, and as a ...

, and then painting the inside of the enclosure black, and painting the outside in bright colors. The final structure was long and wide, weighing around . In the tabloid-sized newsprint catalog published for the show, Saint Phalle included a diagram showing the artistic influences on her design, which included

Simon Rodia The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

Ferdinand Cheval Ferdinand Cheval (19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924), often nicknamed Facteur Cheval ("Mail Carrier Cheval") was a French mail carrier who spent 33 years building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives, in southeastern France.

's ''

Le Palais Idéal Ferdinand Cheval (19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924), often nicknamed Facteur Cheval ("Mail Carrier Cheval") was a France, French mail carrier who spent 33 years building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives, in southeastern Franc ...

'', and the architecture of

Antoni Gaudi Antoni is a Catalan, Polish, and Slovene given name and a surname used in the eastern part of Spain, Poland and Slovenia. As a Catalan given name it is a variant of the male names Anton and Antonio. As a Polish given name it is a variant of the fem ...

. The outer form was a giant, reclining sculpture of a pregnant woman (a ''Nana''), whose voluminous interior could be entered through a door-sized

vagina In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...

l opening between her legs. Written on one of ''Hons massive thighs was the motto ''

Honi soit qui mal y pense (, , ) is a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it", usually translated as "shame on anyone who thinks evil of it" It is ...

'' ("May he be shamed who thinks badly of it"). Inside the massive sculpture were a 12-seat cinema theater, a

milk bar In Australia, a milk bar is a suburban local general store. Similar, but not identical, establishments include tuck shops, delicatessens or "delis", and corner shops or corner stores. Milk bars are traditionally a place where people buy new ...

inside a breast, a

fish pond A fish pond or fishpond is a controlled pond, small artificial lake or retention basin that is stocked with fish and is used in aquaculture for fish farming, for recreational fishing, or for ornamental purposes. Fish ponds are a classical g ...

, and a brain built by Tinguely, with moving mechanical parts. In addition, the sprawling ''Nana'' contained a coin telephone, a love-seat sofa, a museum of fake paintings, a sandwich

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...

, an art installation by Ultvedt, and a

playground slide Playground slides are found in parks, schools, playgrounds and backyards. The slide is an example of the simple machine known as the inclined plane, which makes moving objects up and down easier, or in this case more fun. The slide may be flat, o ...

for children. After an initial shocked silence, the installation elicited extensive public commentary in magazines and newspapers throughout the world, raising awareness of the Moderna Museet. Over 100,000 visitors crowded in to experience the immersive environment, including many children. At the end of 3 months, the entire temporary setup was demolished and removed, except for the head, which was preserved by the museum in its permanent collection. Some small fragments were attached to limited-edition

exhibition catalog There are two types of exhibition catalogue (or exhibition catalog): a printed list of exhibits at an art exhibition; and a directory of exhibitors at a trade fair or business-to-business event. Art or museum exhibition catalogues Catalogues for ...

s and sold as mementos. Around this time, Saint Phalle also designed stage sets and costumes for theatrical productions: ''Éloge de La Folie'' ("Praise of the Madness", 1966), a ballet by Roland Petit; an adaptation of the Aristophanes play ''Lysistrata'' (1966); and a German-language play she co-wrote with titled ''ICH (All About Me)'' (1968). Large fixed or moveable ''Nana'' figures were prominent in several of these productions. In 1967, Saint Phalle began working with polyester resin, a material which could be shaped easily but would transform into a hard, smooth, weather-resistant surface. This new technology enabled her to construct large, fantastical figures for display outdoors in public spaces and parks. The material is reasonably durable outdoors (similar materials are used for boats and car bodies), although decades of weather exposure can eventually cause deterioration, requiring specialized art conservation measures. In August 1967, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam opened Saint Phalle's first retrospective exhibition, ''Les Nanas au pouvoir'' ("Nana Power"). For the show, Niki created her first "Nana Dream House" and "Nana Fountain", and also showed plans for her first "Nana Town". In 1967, she exhibited ''Le Paradis Fantastique'' ("The Fantastic Paradise"), a collaborative grouping of nine of her sculptures with six machines built by Tinguely, on the rooftop terrace of the 8-level French Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. The composition was originally conceived of as an attack by Tinguely's dark mechanical constructions upon Saint Phalle's brightly-colored animals and female figures, a kind of "amorous warfare".Pontus Hultén, ''Jean Tinguely, une magie plus forte que la mort'' (in French), Paris: Éditions Le Chemin vert, 1987, 379 p. (OCLC 185890755) Although the French Pavilion itself was popular, most visitors did not see the rooftop terrace where the sculptures were installed. In 1968, the sculptures were re-displayed at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and then for a year in New York City's Central Park. In 1971, some of the artworks were purchased by the Moderna Museet, and permanently installed nearby in an outdoor

on Skeppsholmen, an island in central Stockholm. In 1968, she first disclosed that she had developed respiratory problems from exposure to dust and fumes in making her artwork. Starting in 1968, Saint Phalle sold ''Nana'' inflatable pool toys, which appeared in the April 1968 issue of ''Vogue'' magazine. She ignored complaints from art critics, focusing on raising money for her future monumental projects. In the coming years, she would face more criticism for over-commercializing and popularizing her artwork, but she raised significant funding that enabled her to finance several ambitious projects on her own. Her production of smaller, lower-cost objects also placed her art within reach of more supporters of her causes. During her career, she produced clothing, jewelry, perfume, glass or porcelain figures, furniture, and craft items, many with a ''Nana'' theme. From 1969 to 1971, she worked on her first full-scale architecture project, three small sculptural houses commissioned by Rainer von Diez in southern France, which she called ' ("The Dream of the Bird"). The project was a collaboration with him and Jean Tinguely, and a forerunner of her later ''Tarot Garden'' project. In 1969, she joined several other artists under the lead of Tinguely, starting work on ''Le Cyclop'' ("Cyclops", also known as ''La Tête'', "The Head", or ''le Monstre dans la forêt'', "the Monster in the forest"), in Milly-la-Forêt, near Paris. Collaborators included Daniel Spoerri, Bernhard Luginbuhl, and Eva Aeppli. Eventually, 15 different people worked on the project, which would not be considered finished until 1994. In 1969 in an interview on television in her studio, she shared her views about the place of women in politics and said "I think women could administer this world much better. If Black power and women power would get together, they would take over everything. That's the solution. A new world of joy." In November 1970, as part of an artists' reunion celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Nouveaux Réalistes, Saint Phalle shot at an altar assemblage. On 13 July 1971, Saint Phalle and Tinguely legally married, perhaps for tax savings, as Saint Phalle thus became a

citizen. Their marriage did give the two artists mutual control over each other's Estate (law), artistic estate if one of them should die. That same year, she designed her first pieces of jewelry. In 1972, she installed ''Golem'', commissioned by the then mayor Teddy Kollek, at a children's playground in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is a giant monster with three red tongues protruding from its mouth, which serve as

s. This project was the first time she used the shotcrete method of spraying concrete over a metal framework to produce large structures; this method would be used in her further major projects. Starting in 1972, she engaged Robert Haligon ("''Fabricant de Plastiques d’Art''") to help fabricate her large-scale sculptures, as well as various editions of artworks. This collaboration would continue for 25 years, including all four of his children, notably Gérard, who would take the lead in later years. The collaboration would produce approximately 3,000 sculptures, ranging from monumental outdoors pieces to small multiple editions. Saint Phalle personally trained daughter Marie Haligon to paint her multiple edition sculptures, following a master artist's prototype. Initially, the artist preferred a matte paint finish, shunning shiny surfaces. However, she was forced to adopt glossy surface finishes to attain improved durability of the paints on her outdoors sculptures. Over time, she embraced this glossy visual effect, and began using mirrors and polished stones to surface her artworks. In 1972, Saint Phalle shot footage for her surreal horror film ''Daddy'', about a deeply troubled father-daughter love-hate relationship. The filming was done in a rented castle near Grasse in southeastern France in association with filmmaker Peter Whitehead (filmmaker), Peter Whitehead. In November, the film was shown in London. The following January, she produced a new version of the film, with additional scenes in Soisy and New York, and an expanded cast. The revised version premiered at Lincoln Center for the 11th New York Film Festival in April. She was also commissioned to design the cover of the program for the festival. In 1973, Saint Phalle worked with Tinguely and Rico Weber on a commission from Roger and Fabienne Nellens to build a playhouse in the garden of their home in seaside Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium. The ''Le Dragon'' they built was a substantial structure, high and long, made using techniques derived from the earlier ''Le Rêve de l'oiseau'' and ''Golem'' projects. The fantastical building would eventually include a kitchen, bathroom, toilet, heating system, and bedroom, at an estimated cost of $30,000 to $40,000. The exterior was decorated with bright paintings, including ones done by Roger Nellens and the Formula 1 race-car driver Jacky Ickx. Similar to the ''Golem'' project the previous year, a long tongue formed an exterior slide from the upper level. In 1987, graffiti artist Keith Haring would live in ''Le Dragon'' while working on a mural commissioned by Roger Nellens at nearby Knokke Casino, and would return for at least three summers. With Saint Phalle's enthusiastic consent, he would paint a long fresco along an interior stairway wall. Eventually, the building would be designated a Monument Historique of Belgium, though it would remain private property. Saint Phalle continued to create ''Nanas'' for the rest of her life, but would soon focus her attention on a comprehensive project in Italy. File:Niki de Saint Phalle Paradiset.JPG File:Niki de Saint Phalle at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.jpg File:Niki de Saint Phalle St 3.jpg File:Stockholm Art II.jpg File:Sweden. Stockholm. Skeppsholmen 020.JPG File:TheFantasticParadise 01.jpg File:Place Igor-Stravinsky from the Centre Georges Pompidou, September 2013.jpg

''Tarot Garden'' (1974–1998)

In 1955, Saint Phalle had visited

's Parc Güell in Barcelona, Spain, which inspired her to use diverse materials and found objects as essential elements in her art. Another influence was the Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo, in the Lazio region of Italy. In the late 1950s, she and Jean Tinguely had visited ''

'' built by

(known as ''Le Facteur Cheval'') in Hauterives, France, as well as

's ''

'' in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Both these latter locations were examples of fantastical

and architecture built by ordinary working men of modest means but an expansive vision. Saint Phalle decided that she wanted to make something similar: a magnificent

, but created by a woman. The founding sponsors for her ambitious project were members of the Italian Agnelli family. In 1974, Saint Phalle became ill with a pulmonary abscess from her work with polyester and was hospitalized in Arizona. She then recuperated in St. Moritz, Switzerland. She reconnected with Marella Agnelli, a friend from the 1950s in New York, and told Agnelli about her ideas for a fantasy garden. In 1978, Agnelli's brothers Carlo and Nicola Caracciolo offered a parcel of their land in Tuscany for the garden's site. In 1974, Saint Phalle created a trio of monumental ''Nana''s installed next to the River Leine in Hanover, Germany. City leaders were initially inundated with over 20,000 letters of complaint, but eventually the figures were affectionately nicknamed "Sophia of Hanover, Sophie", "Charlotte Kestner, Charlotte", and "Caroline Herschel, Caroline" in honor of three of the city's historical women. In 1975, Saint Phalle wrote the screenplay for ''Un rêve plus long que la nuit'' ("A Dream Longer Than the Night", later also called ''Camélia et le Dragon''), and she recruited many of her artist friends to help make it into a film, a phantasmagorical tale of dragons, monsters, and adolescence. A young girl is held captive by a dragon, manages to escape, and must explore ''Sept Portes du Mystère'' ("Seven Doors of Mystery") to find love. Saint Phalle's daughter Laura was the lead character in the film, appearing with Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and other artist friends; Peter Whitehead (filmmaker), Peter Whitehead composed the music. For the filming, she designed several pieces of furniture, which were later displayed on the facade of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. From 1968 to 1988, she also worked on ''Last Night I Had a Dream'', a sculptural relief painting that included many elements from her earlier life and dreams. In 1976, she retreated to the Swiss Alps to refine her plans for the sculpture park. In 1977 Ricardo Menon, an Argentinian, became her assistant; he would work closely with her until 1986. In 1977, she worked with the English writer Constantin Mulgrave to design sets for ''The Traveling Companion'', based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, but the project was never completed. She and Mulgrave lived together for around four years, but Tinguely remained a continually reappearing presence in her life. In 1977, she also visited Mexico and New Mexico, in search of more extensive artistic inspirations. In 1978, Saint Phalle started to lay out her sculpture garden in an abandoned quarry in Garavicchio, Tuscany, about north-west of Rome near the west coast of the Italian peninsula. The following year, sites were cleared, and foundations were established. In 1979, she produced the first of what would become a new series of sculptures, the ''Skinnies''. These were flat, planar, see-through outlines of heads and figures, highlighted by patches of color. In some ways, they resembled her colorful sketches and drawings but scaled up to monumental size. The series also symbolized Saint Phalle's struggles against emphysema and illness. She continued to produce her ''Nanas'' in addition to her new style of sculpture, and both styles of figures would appear in her ''Tarot Garden'' project. In 1980, Saint Phalle and her team began to build the first architectural sculpture in the garden. As the project progressed, Saint Phalle started taking lessons in the Italian language, to better communicate with local workers. The second crew member she hired was Ugo Celletti, a 50-year-old part-time postman, postal delivery man, who discovered a love for mosaic work on the project. He would work on the project for 36 years and recruit his nephews to join in; some family members are still involved in maintaining the site. She invited artist friends from Argentina, Scotland, Holland, and France to help work on the sculptures. Over time, Saint Phalle worked with dozens of people, including architects, ceramicists, ironworkers, bricklayers, painters, and mosaic artists. The materials used in the ''Tarot Garden'' project would include steel, iron, cement, polyester, ceramic, mosaic glass, mirrors, and Tumble finishing, polished stones (which she called "M&M's"). The structure of the more massive sculptures was very similar to the temporary ''Hon'' installation at the Moderna Museet in 1966, but this time the artworks were outdoors and needed to withstand the long-term weathering effects of sun and rain. The basic shape of the sculptures was established with frameworks made of welded steel

. A second layer of lighter-gauge steel reinforcement bars was added, followed by two layers of expanded metal. A specialist firm was then brought in to spray shotcrete onto the structure. A layer of tar for waterproofing and a final layer of white cement produced a sturdy, hollow structure ready for decoration. In 1980, she also began selling a series of polyester snake chairs, vases, and lamps. That year, she recorded her first attack of rheumatoid arthritis, a painful disease affecting the joints of the skeleton. In 1980–1981, she designed a colorful paint scheme for a Piper Aerostar 602 P twin-engine airplane, which participated in the first trans-Atlantic race sponsored by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation of Amsterdam. As an act of playful rebellion against the cigarette manufacturer sponsor, she added a "No smoking sign, No Smoking" sign visible on the belly of the plane (she was allergic to tobacco smoke). In 1981, Saint Phalle rented a small house near the ''Tarot Garden'' and hired young people from Garavicchio to help with construction of the garden. Jean Tinguely led a Swiss team, comprising Seppi Imhoff and Rico Weber, and started welding the frames of the sculptures. The following year, Dutch artist Doc Winsen (also called "Dok van Winsen") took up the welding operations. In 1982, Saint Phalle developed and marketed an eponymous perfume, using the proceeds to help finance her project. The perfume bottle top featured a small sculpture of two intertwined snakes, one golden and the other brightly multicolored. This was one of the first of what came to be called List of celebrity-branded perfumes, celebrity perfumes, using fame and name recognition to sell scented products. She may have raised as much as a third of the funds she needed for the garden in this way. She actively solicited funding from friends and acquaintances, as well as by selling her artworks. In August 1982, Saint Phalle was honored at the Street Festival of the Arts in New York City. Later that year, Saint Phalle collaborated with Tinguely to produce the ''Stravinsky Fountain'', a 15-piece sculptural fountain for Igor Stravinsky Square, located next to the

in Paris. Because of its prominent location in Paris, it would become one of the best-known collaborations between the two artists. From 1983 until 1988 when on site, Saint Phalle lived in a small apartment built into ''The Empress (Tarot card), The Empress'', a house-sized sphinx-like sculpture in the garden. On the second level, her bedroom was inside one breast, and her kitchen was inside the other one. Each of these two rooms had a single recessed circular window, appearing as an inverted nipple when viewed from the outside. In 2000, she would recall: "At last, my lifelong wish to live inside a sculpture was going to be granted: a space entirely made out of undulating curves ... I wanted to invent a new mother, a mother goddess, and be reborn within its form ... I would sleep in one breast. In the other, I would put my kitchen". The ground floor contained a large mirrored space with a mirrored dining table where she would serve lunch to workers and artists, beneath a chandelier Tinguely had made with a cow skull. She used this motherly role to help reinforce her authority in directing the team of men she needed to help build her project. Eventually, she would grow tired of the cramped space "in the womb of her mother", and after 1988 would move into a loft, New-York-loft-style studio which she had built for herself underground at the site. Her assistant Ricardo Menon would live in the ''Tower of Babel'' structure while on site, working closely with Saint Phalle and caring for her during crippling arthritis flareups. Around 1983, Saint Phalle decided to cover her ''Tarot Garden'' sculptures primarily in durable ceramic colored tiles, adding shards of mirrors and glass, and polished stones. Menon helped her recruit Venera Finocchiaro, a ceramics teacher from Rome; she taught local women new techniques for molding ceramic pieces to curved surfaces and installed on-site ovens to finish the pieces. Starting in 1985, Jean Tinguely added motorized and stationary steel sculptures and fountains to the project. Robert Haligon and his sons did much of the work which involved polyester resins. Saint Phalle asked Pierre Marie Lejeune to create a cement path, which he inscribed with hieroglyphs, other signs and symbols, and text. During this period, Saint Phalle dedicated almost all of her time to living and working in the garden. In 1986 Menon left to attend a drama school in Paris, but kept secret from Saint Phalle that he had contracted

. While there, he recruited fellow Argentinian Marcelo Zitelli to work for Saint Phalle as a gardener, but he in turn became her assistant for other work as well, helping her fabricate sculptures for at least the next decade. The same year, Saint Phalle took some time to collaborate with (a German medical professor of immunology) in writing and illustrating her book ''AIDS: You Can’t Catch It Holding Hands'', intended for students in middle school or high school. It was first published in San Francisco in English, then later translated into five different languages; 70,000 copies were sold or given to medical institutions and schools. The book was considered influential in early efforts supporting public health education about the disease. From 1987 to 1993, Saint Phalle spent more of her time in Paris, where she developed many of the smaller sculptures for the garden. From time to time, she would organize gallery shows of her art, including maquettes of her more significant works, to raise funds for the garden project. Saint Phalle also worked on establishing a permanent legal structure for the preservation and maintenance of the garden. In 1988, Saint Phalle participated in a worldwide touring exhibition of kites. Her contribution was a gigantic kite inspired by her ''oiseau amoreux'' ("amorous bird") series of sculptures. In 1992–1993, corrective maintenance on the ''Tarot Garden'' sculptures was performed, using new glues and silicones to attach mirrors and glass elements more securely, to withstand weathering and the touch of many visitors' hands. , a similar restoration process of re-attaching mirrors was ongoing with ''Le Cyclop'', located in Milly-la-Forêt, near Paris. The ''Tarot Garden'' was under development for almost 30 years, and $5 million (roughly $11 million in 2016 dollars) was spent to construct it. The Foundation of the Tarot Garden was constituted in 1997 (and would attain official juridical status in 2002), and the garden officially opened to the public on 15 May 1998. The completed garden (called ''il Giardino dei Tarocchi'' in Italian, and ''le Jardin des Tarots'' in French) now contains sculptures and architectural sculptures representing the 22 cards of Major Arcana found in the Tarot deck of cards, plus other smaller artworks. The site covers around on the southern slope of the hill of Garavicchio, in Capalbio. The tallest sculptures are about high. Saint Phalle's friend, architect

, built a fortress-like protective wall and a porthole-shaped gateway at the entrance to the garden, marking a distinctive separation from the outside world. The entry structure also houses a ticket office, a gift shop, and Public toilet, restrooms for visitors. Within the park, there are fountains, courtyards, a multilevel tower, and many larger-than-life mythical creatures. Saint Phalle designed a brochure containing a map and other information for visitors to the garden, which is open seasonally. File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, ingresso 01.JPG, Sign at entrance File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, ingresso 02.JPG, View into entrance File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, imperatrice, interno, mosaico di specchi 01.JPG, Mirrored mosaic ceiling inside ''The Empress (Tarot card), The Empress'' File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, imperatrice, interno, cucina.JPG, Kitchen used by Saint Phalle inside ''The Empress'' File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, la giustizia, chiavistello.JPG, Detail of ''Justice (Tarot card), Justice'' File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, la torre, interno, mosaico di specchi 01.JPG, Mosaic ceiling inside ''The Tower (Tarot card), The Tower'' File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, la torre, pattern pavimento terrazza.JPG, Floor paving at ''The Tower'' File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, vialetto 01.JPG, Walkway inscribed with arcane symbols File:Niki de saint-phalle, giardino dei tarocchi, vialetto 02.JPG, Pathway signed by Saint Phalle File:Niki de Saint Phalle Imperatrice.JPG, ''The Empress (Tarot card), The Empress'' (internal view)

Later years (1990–2002)

In her final years, Saint Phalle was afflicted with emphysema, asthma, and severe arthritis, which she and many commentators attributed to exposure to airborne glass fibers, fumes, and petrochemicals from materials used in her artworks. Despite these handicaps, she launched into exploring new venues, new technologies, and new art media. In 1989, Ricardo Menon, Saint Phalle's former assistant, died of AIDS; his loss plunged Saint Phalle into depression. She created a large mosaic sculpture of a cat, ''Chat de Ricardo'', to serve as his cemetery headstone in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France. She placed a second copy of the memorial sculpture in her ''Tarot Garden'' in Tuscany, where he had worked closely with her for nearly a decade. In 1990, Saint Phalle completed ''Skull (Meditation Room)'', a tall room-sized skull-shaped enclosure surfaced in colorful mosaics and lined inside with mosaic mirrors, to memorialize the AIDS crisis. She also used bronze for the first time, in a series of Egyptian gods and goddesses. In 1991, she produced a maquette for ''Le Temple Idéal'' ("The Ideal Temple"), a place of worship welcoming all religions, in response to the religious intolerance she saw while working in Jerusalem. The city of Nîmes (France) commissioned her to build the architectural sculpture, but the project never was constructed, due to politics. Over the years, she had become interested in myths and religious traditions beyond her childhood Roman Catholic upbringing, including Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and ancient Egyptian beliefs. In August 1991, Jean Tinguely died suddenly of a heart attack in Bern, Switzerland. During his previous two years of declining health, he had stopped taking medication and began preparing for death. The couple had separated years ago, but remained very close; the loss of her longtime collaborator and intimate friend affected Saint Phalle deeply. She was writing a memoir letter about their first meeting when news of his death reached her. In his memory, Saint Phalle created her first

, which she called ''Méta-Tinguelys''. With initial assistance from her artist friend

, she created a series of kinetic reliefs or moving paintings, called ''Tableaux Éclatés'' ("Shattered Paintings"), in homage to her late husband and colleague. When a visitor approached, a photocell would trigger motors which caused elements of the paintings to separate. Saint Phalle lost many friends and associates to AIDS, including Jean-Jacques Goetzman, who died in 1992. She memorialized him with ''Oiseau pour Jean-Jacques'' ("Bird for Jean-Jacques"), a large reflective abstract bird sculpture at Montparnasse Cemetery. As her health deteriorated, she worked on creating the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, as well as continuing work on her ''Tarot Garden''. During this time, she became a good friend of the museum's architect

, and she also engaged him to design the wall and entryway to her ''Tarot Garden''. In 1994, Saint Phalle published her hand-illustrated and hand-colored memoirs ''Mon Secret'' ("My Secret") in French and revealed her childhood history of sexual abuse. In 1999, she released ''Traces'', an English-language autobiography, which she also illustrated. In 2006, ''Harry and Me: The Family Years; 1950–1960'' was published (posthumously), consisting of her self-illustrated memoirs from the decade when she was married to

. Saint Phalle moved from Paris to La Jolla, California in 1994 for health reasons. She set up a new studio and produced sculptures which were covered with mirrors, glass, and polished stones, instead of paints. In her new workspace, she started to explore novel technologies for designing and creating artwork. She also became an active member of the San Diego art scene, participating in fund-raisers and exhibitions there. In 1994 she designed a stamp for Swiss Post, with the message "Stop AIDS/Stop SIDA", for which she was awarded the Prix Caran d’Ache. She also began a series of silkscreened works, which she called ''California Diary'', featuring local fauna. She started a new series of ''Totem'' totem pole, pillars of stacked human or animal figures and anatomical fragments. In 1994, she finally declared the collaborative sculpture ''Le Cyclop'', started in 1969 by Tinguely and worked on by 15 artists, to be finished. The President of France, François Mitterrand, opened the work to the general public in May. To control vandalism, the installation was donated to the French state, which has taken responsibility for its safeguarding and maintenance. The massive structure is tall, weighs , and is filled with custom-built artworks, including a giant rolling ball sculpture. Many of the artworks are Kinetic art, kinetic, endowing the installation with constant motion, and producing loud groaning and other mechanical noises. In October 1994, the Niki Museum, dedicated to telling the story of her life and artwork, was opened in Nasu, Japan. However, the Niki Museum would later be forced to close in 2011. In 1994, Saint Phalle worked with Peter Schamoni in making a documentary film about her life story, ''Niki de Saint Phalle: Wer ist das Monster – Du oder ich?'' ("Who is the Monster, You or I?"). In 1995, the film was awarded the Bavarian Film Awards, Bavarian Film Award for best documentary. In 1996, she began building ''Gila'', a large Gila monster, dragon-shaped children's playhouse for a San Diego private residence. This project was her first use of digital techniques to enlarge drawings into full-scale construction. In 1996, she supported the opening of the Museum Tinguely in Basel, by donating 55 major sculptures and over 100 graphic works by Tinguely, which constituted much of the core collection. She also donated some of her and her husband's artwork to create :fr:L’Espace Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle, L’Espace Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle at the Musée d’art et d’histoire (Fribourg), Musée d’art et d’histoire in Fribourg, Switzerland. In 1997, she designed snake chairs of wood with a mosaic inlay, made by Del Cover and Dave Carr. In 1998, she created a series of ''Black Heroes'' sculptures in honor of African-Americans who made major contributions to sports or jazz, including Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and Josephine Baker. She dedicated the series to her great-grandchildren, who are of mixed race. She also completed her series of 23 large animals for the ''Noah's Ark'' sculptural park at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo with the assistance of her international team of artisans, and in collaboration with architect Mario Botta. In 1999, she debuted a monumental statue of ''Buddha'', a one-eyed contemplative figure seated in the lotus position. The figure is covered with glittering mosaic tiles, glass, mirrors, and polished stones. On 17 November 2000, she became an honorary citizen of Hannover, Germany, and donated 300 pieces of her artwork to the Sprengel Museum located there. In 2000, the artist was awarded the Praemium Imperiale award for sculpture, by the Japan Art Association. The award is considered to be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the world of art. In 2001, she gave 170 pieces to the Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain (MAMAC) in Nice, France, and donated other works to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She also designed and built for the Port of San Diego a tall, 10-ton sculpture, ''Coming Together''. The largest of her ''Skinnies'' series, the artwork consists of a colorful half female and a black-and-white half male face joined together, covered with mosaic and stones. The dedication ceremony was delayed to 25 October 2001 because of the September 11 attacks the previous month; the artist was unable to attend because of her deteriorating health. The artwork signified her interpretation of yin and yang, sickness and health, and the integration of dual aspects into a unified whole. Saint Phalle endured intensive care hospitalization for six months before dying of respiratory failure (caused by emphysema) at Scripps Health, Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, on 21 May 2002. She was attended by her first husband Harry Mathews, and their children. Up until the end, she continued to design further developments for her ''Tarot Garden'' in Italy, including a maze, for which land was cleared, and metal rods were installed. Upon her death, all new developments in her garden were halted, as she had previously specified. Since then, some modest changes have been implemented, mostly to accommodate an increasing number of visitors. A garden cafe designed by Mario Botta has also been constructed. One salient exception is the Tarot figure of ''Le Fou'' ("The Fool"), which Saint Phalle relocated within the ''Tarot Garden'' at least twice during her life. This symbolic migrational tradition is expected to be continued from time to time. Posthumously, the ''Grotto'' (2001–2003) was completed according to detailed instructions left by Saint Phalle. The permanent installation, in the ''Grosser Garten'', Herrenhausen Gardens, Hannover, consisted of three rooms which were decorated on every surface with mirrors, glass, ceramics, and colored stones. Posthumously, ''Queen Califia's Magical Circle'' (2000–2003), a diameter sun-drenched sculpture garden designed by Saint Phalle, was opened in Escondido, California in October 2002. It is enclosed in a undulating wall topped with large Pythonidae, python-like snakes, and includes a maze and 10 large sculptures she designed, comprising the most extensive public collection of her work in the US. The artworks were inspired by Native American culture, and decorations also included symbols and plaques referring to her earlier ''Tarot Garden''.

Legacy

Throughout her career, Saint Phalle was outspoken in addressing important religious conflict, political, pandemic health, race, gender, reproductive rights, food security, climate change, and cultural issues of the time. Her ''Tirs'' series and assemblages reflected the violence of the early 1960s Algerian War for independence from France and asserted her rebellion as part of second-wave feminism. In spite of the spectacular use of firearms in her ''Tirs'' series of early work, she supported gun control. Her enormous, curvaceous ''Nanas'' celebrated the fecund female form, featuring large breasts and buttocks, splayed limbs, joyous dance postures, and often, black skin. She was one of the earliest artistic champions of

awareness, creating artworks and a widely distributed educational book. Shortly before her death, she exhibited drawings critical of the George W Bush administration. In addition to her artworks, she wrote extensively in both French and English, and granted numerous interviews; much of this material is collected in her archives.

Gallery

File:HaMifletzetGardenNov102022 01.jpg, ''Golem'' (1971), Kiryat Hayovel, Israel File:La Grande Lune.JPG, ''La Grande Lune'' ("Great Moon", 1985/1992), MAHF Fribourg, Switzerland File:St-Phalle Ulm-29-24.jpg, ''Adam and Eve'' (1985), Ulm, Germany File:DuisburgInnenstadt.jpg, ''Lifesaver Fountain'' (1993), Duisburg, Germany File:Losanna, museo olimpico, niki de saint-phalle, les footballers, 1993.JPG, ''Les Footballeurs'' ("Soccer Players", 1993), The Olympic Museum, Lausanne File:Zürich HB Halle Ri Osten Schutzengel.jpg, ''L'Ange Protecteur'' ("Guardian Angel", 1997), Zürich Hauptbahnhof File:NikideSaintPhalle-Grotte.jpg, Part of the ''Grotto'' (2003), Hannover, Germany

Major exhibitions

* 1998 ''Niki de Saint Phalle : insider, outsider world inspired art'', Mingei International Museum on The Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California * 2000 ''La Fête. Die Schenkung Niki de Saint Phalle'' ("Celebration: The Donation of Niki de Saint Phalle"), Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany * 2002 [retrospective], Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMAC), Nice, France * 2014 ''Niki de Saint Phalle'', Grand Palais, Galeries nationales, Paris, France * 2016 ''Niki de Saint Phalle'', Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark * 2021 ''Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life'', MoMA PS1, Queens, New York City * 2021-2022 ''Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1960s'', Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Public art

Many of Saint Phalle's sculptures are large and are exhibited in public places. The Niki Charitable Art Foundation maintains an online map and catalog of all her extant public artworks, including a pizza oven in La Jolla, California. * ''Le Paradis Fantastique'' ("The Fantastic Paradise", 1967), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (in collaboration with Tinguely) * ''Golem'' (1971), Kiryat Hayovel, Jerusalem * ''Hannover Nanas'' (1973), along the Leibnizufer in Hannover, Germany * ''La Fontaine Stravinsky'' (''Stravinsky Fountain'' or ''Fontaine des automates'', 1982) near the Centre Pompidou, Paris (in collaboration with Tinguely) * ''Sun God (statue), 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'' ("The Moon", 1987), Brea Mall in Brea, California * ''Fontaine de Château-Chinon'' (1988), at Château-Chinon (Ville), Château-Chinon,

Nièvre Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019. * ''Grand Oiseau de Feu sur l’arche'' ("Great Firebird on the Arch", 1991), in front of Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Bechtler Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina * ''La Tempérance'' (1992) in Centre Hamilius, Luxembourg (city), Luxembourg-Ville, Luxembourg (this work was in storage as the site was being demolished). * ''Le Monstre du Loch Ness'' ("Loch Ness Monster", 1992), Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain (MAMAC), Nice, France * ''Oiseau Amoureux Fontaine / Lebensretter-Brunnen'' (''Amorous Bird Fountain / Lifesaver Fountain'', 1989–1993), Duisburg, Germany (in collaboration with Tinguely) * ''Le Cyclop'' (1969–1994), Milly-la-Forêt, France (in collaboration with Tinguely and 15 other artists) * ''Tympanum'' (1996) triangular mirror mosaic and mirrored pediment above the entrance to the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, Scotland * ''L'Ange Protecteur'' ("Guardian Angel", 1997) in the hall of the Zürich Hauptbahnhof, the largest rail station in Switzerland * ''Le poète et sa muse'' ("Poet and His Muse", 1998), Mingei International Museum on The Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California * ''Big Ganesh'' (1998), San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hindu elephant-god Ganesh dances with a small mouse * ''Miles Davis'' (1999), outside of Hotel Negresco in Nice, France * ''Noah's Ark'' (1994–2001), Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, 23 works in a collaborative sculpture park with architect

* ''Nikigator'' (2001), Mingei International Museum on The Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California * ''Coming Together'' (2001), San Diego Convention Center * ''Grotto'' (2001–2003), Herrenhäuser Gardens in Hannover, Germany * ''Queen Califia's Magical Circle'' (2003), a sculpture garden in Kit Carson Park, Escondido, California

Museums and collections

Macedonian Museums-76-Maked Sygxronhs Texnhs Thess-335

A “

–Niki de Saint Phalle Museum” exists in Fribourg, Switzerland, entirely dedicated to her and her husbands’ works. The Sprengel Museum has the largest holdings of Niki de Saint Phalle's work, and other major holdings are at Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, MAMAC. Her archives and artistic rights are held by the Niki Charitable Art Foundation (NCAF) in Santee, California, near San Diego, which became active upon her passing. The NCAF maintains an online catalog of artworks in museums and major collections. The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, North Carolina has several works by Niki de Saint Phalle in its permanent collection, as well as the ''Grand Oiseau de Feu sur l’arche'' ("Great Firebird on the Arch", 1991) which stands on a sidewalk outside the museu

Bibliography (by publication date)

Niki de Saint Phalle 2011 in Schwäbisch Hall

* * – autobiography * * * * * * * * * * * Applin, Jo, "Alberto Burri and Niki de Saint Phalle: Relief Sculpture and Violence in the Sixties", ''Source: Notes in the History of Art'', Winter 2008 * Catherine Francblin, * * – Compendium of recurring symbols in the artist's work, and some of their possible meanings * * * – Catalog of the artist's first retrospective exhibition in New York City, where the artist spent much of her childhood and adolescence * – Catalog of exhibition covering the 1960s ''Tirs'' and early ''Nanas'' series of artworks A short, annotated bibliography is available at the Niki Charitable Art Foundation website. , an online ''catalogue raisonné'' of the artist's "Nanas" is "forthcoming".

Film

* ''Daddy (1973), Daddy'' (1973), written and directed by Saint Phalle and Peter Whitehead (filmmaker), Peter Lorrimer Whitehead * ''Un rêve plus long que la nuit / Camélia et le Dragon'' ("A dream longer than the night / Camelia and the Dragon", 1976), written and directed by Saint Phalle * ' ("Who is the Monster, You or I?", 1995), biographical documentary (in German) by Peter Schamoni in collaboration with Saint Phalle * ''Niki de Saint Phalle: Introspections and Reflections'' (2003), posthumous documentary by André Blas * ''Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely: Bonnie and Clyde of the arts'' (2012), posthumous documentary by Louise Faure and Anne Julien * ''Niki de Saint Phalle, un rêve d’architecte'' (''Niki de Saint Phalle: An architect’s dream'', 2014), posthumous documentary by Louise Faure and Anne Julien A comprehensive listing is at the Niki Charitable Art Foundation website.

Notes

References

External links

Official website of the artist's foundation, NCAF

Official website of the ''Tarot Garden'' sculpture park

Official website of ''Queen Califia's Magical Circle'' sculpture park

Official website of ''Le Cyclop''

Personal blog on ''Tarot Garden''

Catalogue Raisonné research

Walkthrough video tour of the ''Tarot Garden'', from the Grand Palais retrospective

''Niki de Saint Phalle – Der Traum vom fantastischen Garten'', 50-minute documentary by Fabian Hirschi (in German)

A brief video overview of Saint Phalle's art, produced by the Tate Gallery
and presented by the Khan Academy
Video excerpt showing construction, operation, and later demolition of ''Hon – en katedral''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Phalle, Niki de 1930 births 2002 deaths 20th-century French painters 20th-century French sculptors 20th-century French women artists De Saint Phalle family, Niki French autobiographers French contemporary artists French expatriates in Italy French expatriates in Spain French expatriates in the United States French female models French filmmakers French untitled nobility French women painters Modern painters Modern sculptors Nouveau réalisme artists People from Neuilly-sur-Seine Pop artists Légion d'honneur refusals Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale Deaths from emphysema Brearley School alumni Women autobiographers

Early life and education (1930–1948)

First marriage and children (1949–1960)

''Tirs'' (1961–1963)

''Nanas'' (1964–1973)

''Tarot Garden'' (1974–1998)

Later years (1990–2002)

Legacy

Gallery

Major exhibitions

Public art

Museums and collections

Bibliography (by publication date)

Film

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links