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sculpture Le Cyclop in Milly-la-Forêt, France; Golem,
a playground in Jerusalem; Noah’s Ark sculpture park
in Jerusalem; and Le Dragon de Knokke, a children’s
playhouse in Belgium.

Many of these ideas culminated in Saint Phalle’s central
life project, Tarot Garden, a massive architectural park
outside Rome, Italy, which she began constructing in
the late 1970s and continued to develop alongside key
collaborators until her death.

Opened to the public in 1998, the garden and its
structures, which are based on the Major Arcana of
the tarot deck, allow for moments of interaction and
reflection that underscore Saint Phalle’s use of art to
alter perception. The exhibition will include photographs
and drawings of Tarot Garden as well as models that
Saint Phalle created for its various structures.

The exhibition is organized by Ruba Katrib, Curator,
MoMA PS1.

Niki de Saint Phalle was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine,
France and raised in New York City. In 1948, at age 18,
she married the writer Harry Matthews. They moved to
Paris in 1952, and shortly thereafter Saint Phalle was
hospitalized for a nervous breakdown and began painting
as a therapeutic activity. In the late 1950s, Saint Phalle
met artist Jean Tinguely, an important collaborator whom
she married in 1971. She was the only female member
of the Nouveau Réalisme group with Tinguely, Arman,
Christo, and Yves Klein, among others. In 1961, the first
solo exhibition of Saint Phalle’s work was held at Galerie
J, Paris. That same year, her work was included in the
exhibition The Art of Assemblage at The Museum of
Modern Art, New York. Saint Phalle was the subject of a Niki de Saint Phalle at Tarot Garden, Garavicchio, Italy, 1980s.
retrospective at the Ulm Museum, Germany, and Centre Photographer unknown.
Pompidou, Paris in 1980, and at the Kunsthalle Bonn in
1992. In 1994, she moved to California, where she lived
until her death in 2002. ABOUT MoMA PS1
MoMA PS1 is devoted to today’s most experimental,
Posthumously, her work has been the subject of major thought-provoking contemporary art. Founded in 1976
exhibitions at Tate Liverpool (2008); Grand Palais, Paris as the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, it was the first
(2014); and the Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2018). nonprofit arts center in the United States devoted solely
Saint Phalle is represented in public collections including to contemporary art and is recognized as a defining force
The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée d’Art in the alternative space movement. In 2000 The Museum
Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center merged,
Amsterdam; and Tate Gallery, London. creating the largest platform for contemporary art in the
country and one of the largest in the world. Functioning as a
living, active meeting place for the general public, MoMA.

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