“Who would I be? George Sand? Joan of Arc? Napoleon in petticoats?”
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Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle was a French American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, 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.
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culture · French plastician, painter and sculptor (1930–2002) · model · painter · visual artist · sculptor · illustrator · jewelry designer · conceptual artist · watercolorist · installation artist · performance artist · also Niki de Saint Phalle, Niki De St. Phalle, Marie Fal de Saint-Phalle, Niki de Saint- Phalle, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Niki De Saint-Phalle
Born 29 October 1930 · Died 21 May 2002 · Q168704
58 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 1 entry
2021· 1 entry
A similar restoration process of re-attaching mirrors was ongoing with Le Cyclop, located in Milly-la-Forêt, near Paris
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2002· 2 entries
Died 2002-05-21.
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“Niki Saint Phalle, artista franco-americana cuja estátua de 3 metros desapareceu do Centro Pompidou de Paris”
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2000· 2 entries
Awarded Praemium Imperiale (2000).
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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
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1997· 1 entry
(and would attain official juridical status in 2002), and the garden officially opened to the public on 15 May 1998
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1990· 1 entry
Saint Phalle completed Skull (Meditation Room), a 5-metre (16 ft) tall room-sized skull-shaped enclosure surfaced in colorful mosaics and lined inside with mosaic mirrors, to memorialize the AIDS crisis
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1989· 1 entry
Ricardo Menon, Saint Phalle's former assistant, died of AIDS; his death plunged Saint Phalle into depression
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1988· 1 entry
Saint Phalle participated in a worldwide touring exhibition of kites
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1987· 1 entry
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
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1986· 1 entry
Menon left to attend a drama school in Paris, but kept secret from Saint Phalle that he had contracted AIDS
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1985· 1 entry
Jean Tinguely added motorized and stationary steel sculptures and fountains to the project
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1982· 1 entry
Saint Phalle developed and marketed an eponymous perfume, using the proceeds to help finance her project
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1981· 1 entry
Saint Phalle rented a small house near the Tarot Garden and hired young people from Garavicchio to help with the construction of the garden
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1980· 2 entries
Also began selling a series of polyester snake chairs, vases, and lamps
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Saint Phalle and her team began to build the first architectural sculpture in the garden
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1979· 1 entry
Produced the first of what would become a new series of sculptures, the Skinnies
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1978· 2 entries
Saint Phalle started to lay out her sculpture garden in an abandoned quarry in Garavicchio, Tuscany, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north-west of Rome near the west coast of the Italian peninsula
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Agnelli's brothers Carlo and Nicola Caracciolo offered a parcel of their land in Tuscany for the garden's site
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1977· 3 entries
Ricardo Menon, an Argentinian, became her assistant; he would work closely with her until 1986
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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
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Also visited Mexico and New Mexico, in search of more extensive artistic inspirations
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1976· 1 entry
Retreated to the Swiss Alps to refine her plans for the sculpture park
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1975· 2 entries
“A Dream Longer Than the Night”
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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 p
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1974· 2 entries
Saint Phalle created a trio of monumental Nanas installed next to the River Leine in Hanover, Germany
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Saint Phalle became ill with a pulmonary abscess from her work with polyester and was hospitalized in Arizona
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1973· 1 entry
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
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1972· 3 entries
Installed Golem (Niki de Saint Phalle), commissioned by the then mayor Teddy Kollek, at a children's playground in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood of Jerusalem
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Engaged Robert Haligon ("Fabricant de Plastiques d’Art") to help fabricate her large-scale sculptures, as well as various editions of artworks
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Saint Phalle shot footage for her surreal horror film Daddy, about a deeply troubled father-daughter love-hate relationship
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1971· 1 entry
Some of the artworks were purchased by the Moderna Museet, and permanently installed nearby in an outdoor sculpture garden on Skeppsholmen, an island in central Stockholm
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1969· 2 entries
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
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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 Pa
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1968· 3 entries
Saint Phalle sold Nana inflatable pool toys, which appeared in the April 15, 1968, issue of Vogue magazine
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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
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First disclosed that she had developed respiratory problems from exposure to dust and fumes in making her artwork
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1967· 2 entries
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
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Saint Phalle began working with polyester resin, a material which could be shaped easily but would transform into a hard, smooth, weather-resistant surface
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1966· 2 entries
Saint Phalle collaborated with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt on a temporary indoor sculpture installation, Hon – en katedral (which means "She-a-Cathedral" in Swedish), filling a large temporary gallery in the Moder
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But this time the artworks were outdoors and needed to withstand the long-term weathering effects of sun and rain
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1963· 1 entry
The couple purchased an old hotel, called Auberge au Cheval Blanc ("White Horse Inn"), in Soisy-sur-Ecole, 44 kilometres (27 mi) southeast of Paris
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1962· 1 entry
Had her first one-woman show in New York City, at the gallery run by Alexander Iolas
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1961· 1 entry
“Daddy, all men, short men, tall men, important men, fat men, men, my brother, society, the church … all men, daddy, myself.”
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1960· 2 entries
And Harry separated by mutual agreement, and her husband moved to another apartment with their two children
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Tinguely introduced her to Pontus Hultén, then the director of the Moderna Museet (Modern Museum) in Stockholm, Sweden
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1959· 1 entry
Saint Phalle first encountered multiple artworks by Yves Klein, Marcel Duchamp, Daniel Spoerri, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns
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1956· 2 entries
Met the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely and his wife, artist Eva Aeppli
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In Switzerland, where she displayed her naïve style of oil painting
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1955· 1 entry
Saint Phalle had visited Antoni Gaudí's Parc Güell in Barcelona, Spain, which inspired her to use diverse materials and found objects as essential elements in her art
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1954· 1 entry
Saint Phalle was introduced to the American-French painter Hugh Weiss, who became both her friend and artistic mentor
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1952· 2 entries
The small family moved to Paris, where Harry continued his studies in conducting at I’Ecole Normale de Musique
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“At one point, Gloria Steinem 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.'”
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1941· 1 entry
Rejoined her maternal grandparents, who had moved to Princeton, New Jersey, and briefly attended the public school there
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1937· 2 entries
Attended school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart on East 91st Street in Manhattan
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The family moved to East 88th Street and Park Avenue in the affluent Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City
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1930· 1 entry
Born 1930-10-29.
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