948. Niki de Saint-Phalle (1930-2002), French,

Black Venus, 1965-67. Polyester paint, 89 x 279 x 60 cm.

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. New Realism.

 

 

Niki de Saint-Phalle

(1930 Neuilly-sur-Seine – 2002 San Diego)

 

The French sculptor Niki de Saint-Phalle spent her childhood in New York. A self taught artist, she began painting in 1950. In 1952, she returned to Paris, and after 1960, lived with the sculptor Jean Tinguely. In 1961, she began to create her shot-reliefs, artworks where she used a shotgun to pierce suspended paint cans located over an assembly of different materials found in relief; while emptying these bags, the paint would finish the work. Her first solo exposition took place at the Alexander Iolas Gallery in New York in 1961. During this time, she joined the New Realist group in Paris and began creating slightly more conventional sculptures, many of them made to express  a political intention. She later began making extremely large artworks, including She from 1966, showing a woman lying down with entrails including film projections, installations and machines that can be seen through a small opening between her legs. Later in her career, Saint-Phalle wrote plays, directed films, created architectural projects and continued to sculpt. A large retrospective of her work was organized in Munich in 1987.