Niki de Saint Phalle: Model approach to the world of art
Feb 1 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post
Tate Liverpool curator Kyla MacDonald with some of French artist Niki de Saint Phalle's work _180
Politics often featured in such works, among them Heads of State, which consists of six heads of then current political leaders, with six masks of strange creatures below.
From the mid-1960s comes a series of sculptures of women, often brides, and there is a fantastic horse created out of wire mesh and all sorts of objects, from plastic heads to toys.
It was the shooting paintings that earned her notoriety, however, the creation of which she once described as being exciting, sexy and tragic. She stopped shooting the paintings in 1963, explaining: “I had become addicted to shooting, like one becomes addicted to a drug.”
Her self-styled Nanas – large, colourful, fat – came in the mid-1960s, her idea of Everywoman, she explained. The semi and totally abstract forms are quite delightful, although not as controversial as one she created with lover Tinguely in 1966 for a museum in Sweden. This was titled Hon (Swedish for she) and was a giant sculpture which people could enter between the woman’s legs.
Perhaps her lasting legacy, however, is the sculpture garden she created in the late 1970s on a parcel of land in Tuscany. She had become fascinated by images of The Tarot, and on the land created exotic fountains, sculptures, Nana-like figures and serpents all based on Tarot figures.
There is a theme park quality to it all, with its use of glass and ceramic mosaics and those colourful figures. The Tate exhibition cannot take you there, but there are lithographs and sculptures associated with the park including a hanging man and – most dramatic of all – a giant Devil in coloured paint.
The works on show have mostly come from two major holdings of Nike De Saint Phalle’s work, says curator Kyla McDonald – the Sprengel Museum, in Hanover, and the MAMAC collection, in Nice.
The commercial value of her work can also be studied in the Tate’s shop, where merchandise connected with the exhibition is available including fridge magnets, T-shirts and inflatable Nanas.
* NIKI de SAINT PHALLE exhibition opens today and runs until May 5. Admission £5. Opening 10am-5.50pm (closed Mondays). 0151 702 7400.
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