Niki de saint phalle biography of christopher
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Niki de Saint Phalle: lock 'n' load
The project was entirely self-financed – which was, inadvertently, why her artistic reputation became tarnished. Towards the end of her life she launched a perfume, created furniture, a jewellery line and an array of products emblazoned with leaping, colourful Nanas. Her work began to appear kitsch and almost too sweet. There was too much colour. It began to date. But since her death in 2002, Niki de Saint Phalle has become an interesting influence on a younger generation of leftfield artists. The Dutch artist Parra’s graphic bodies echo the colourful curved Nanas. She’s there in the vibrant palette of Chris Johanson’s paintings, or Paper Rad’s psychedelic animation and she’s in the attitude of outsider artists like Miss Van and Fafi .
British artist Ben Sansbury, who grew out of the UK skate scene, was heavily influenced bygd her timeless primitivism. “There’s something really brave, immediate and intuitive about her work. It’s aesthetically
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Issue 39 February 2025
PST ART
Cai Guo-Qiang’s WE ARE
—Chelsea Shi-Chao Liu
Grief is a Filipino
Boxing Match
Adaptive Theory
Ecofeminism
—Ashlyn Ashbaugh
Interview with
Dashiell Manley
Reviews
at Art + Practice
—Allison Noelle Conner
Jonathan Casella
at Gross! Gallery
—Tina Barouti
Scientia Sexualis
at the Institute of
Contemporary Art,
Los Angeles
—Ashton S. Phillips
Demetri Broxton
at Patricia
Sweetow Gallery
—Taylor Bythewood-Porter
Post Human
at Jeffrey Deitch
—Zoey Greenwald
Evan Apodaca
at Grand Central
Art Center
—Aaron Katzeman
Issue 38 November 2024
(Re)claiming Sanctity
Black Backstage
—Shameekia Shantel Johnson
To Live and Work in L.A.
Alternative Art Spaces
—Keith J. Varadi
Collective Memory and
Coded Histories at the 60th
Venice Biennale
Interview with
Andra Nadirshah and
Ste
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«In June 2016, an anonymous donor familiar with The Met's holdings of Niki de Saint Phalle, such as Nana and Serpent, approached Watson Library with a generous gift of 53 exhibition catalogues, monographs, and artists' books of Saint Phalle's work. Recognizing Watson Library's commitment to representing a contemporary artist's entire oeuvre, the donor saw an opportunity for Saint Phalle to be widely represented in The Met's great library.»
Niki de Saint Phalle, Retrospektive, 1954–80 (Duisburg: Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum der Stadt Duisburg, 1980).
Saint Phalle was a Franco-American painter, sculptor, collagist, and filmmaker associated with the Nouveau Réalisme movement, which included Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, and Martial Raysse. The images below, from a selection of books recently on display in the library, represent a half-century of her creative output and 60 years of scholarship on her work.
This important donation constitutes a major