venicecityguide

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE

1930, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

Protest and provocation mark the beginning of her creative journey, which is close to the Nouveau Réalism movement. Niki de Saint Phalle created assemblages/performances using scraps, gesso statues, and plastic bags filled with paint, which she would shoot at with a rifle to spray the paint everywhere. She would also create the sculptures that made her famous: the nanas, female figures of voluptuous, soft shapes, that dance in colourful clothing to what seems to be a hymn to life. We also owe her the Giardino dei Tarocchi, a sculpture park in Capalbio, central Italy.

SIGNS

  • Structures for Life, MoMA PS1, New York, USA, 2021
  • Il luogo dei sogni, Castello Aldobrandesco Collacchioni, Capalbio, Italy, 2021
  • 43rd Venice Biennale, Italy, 1988

MAGAZINE