Page 80 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

sculptures of female figures whose sinuous curves would
inform much of her work to come. Beginning in the late
1960s, Saint Phalle started producing large-scale sculptures,
which led to an expansion of her practice into architectural
NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE: projects, sculpture gardens, books, prints, films, theater
STRUCTURES FOR LIFE sets, clothing, jewelry, and, famously, her own perfume.
Central to the exhibition is an examination of Saint Phalle’s
MoMA PS1
large-scale outdoor sculptures and architectural projects,
including Le rêve de l’oiseau (built for Rainer von Diez
between 1968 and 1971); Golem, a playground in Jerusalem
(1971-72); Le Dragon de Knokke, a children’s playhouse in
Belgium (1973-75); and La fontaine Stravinsky (1983); among
others. These are represented in the exhibition by the many
Long Island City, New York, - MoMA PS1 presents the first
models she made in preparation for and in homage to her
New York museum exhibition of the work of visionary
architectural works, as well as through a wide selection of
feminist artist Niki de Saint Phalle (American and French,
archival materials - many of which have never before been
1930‒2002). On view from March 11 to September 6,
exhibited. The ideas explored in these works culminated in
2021, Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life will feature
Saint Phalle’s central life project, Tarot Garden, a massive
over 200 works created from the mid-1960s until the
architectural park outside Rome, Italy, which she began
artist’s death, including sculptures, prints, drawings,
constructing in the late 1970s and continued to develop
jewelry, films, and archival materials. Highlighting Saint
alongside key collaborators until her death. Opened to the
Phalle’s interdisciplinary approach and engagement with
public in 1998, the garden and its structures, which are
key social and political issues, the exhibition will focus
based on the 22 Major Arcana of the tarot deck, allow for
on works that she created to transform environments,
moments of interaction and reflection that underscore
individuals, and society. From the beginning of her career
Saint Phalle’s use of art to alter perception. The exhibition
in the 1950s, Saint Phalle pushed against accepted artistic
will include photographs and drawings of Tarot Garden
practices, creating work that used assemblage as well as
as well as models that Saint Phalle created for its various
performative and collaborative modes of production. Saint
structures. For Saint Phalle, these structures were
Phalle initially gained attention in the early 1960s with her
charged spaces of imagination from which she envisioned
Tirs, paintings produced by firing a gun at plaster reliefs
experimental societies emerging, places “where you could
to release pockets of paint, and Nanas, brightly colored
have a new kind of life, to just be free.”
Alexander Calder. Sandy’s Butterfly. 1964. Painted stainless sheet steel Niki de Saint Phalle. Interior view of Empress, Tarot Garden, Garavicchio, Italy
and iron rods, 12'8"x 9'2"x 8' 7" (386 x 279 x 261 cm). The Museum of © 2020 Fondazione il Giardino dei Tarocchi. Photo: Peter Granser
Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist. © 2021 Calder Foundation, New
York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Installation view of Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life, on view at MoMA
PS1, New York, from March 11 to September 6, 2021. Image courtesy MoMA
PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell
Niki de Saint Phalle. Tarot Garden, Garavicchio, Italy. © 2021 Fondazione il
Giardino dei Tarocchi. Photo: Peter Granser
Niki at The High Priestess in the Tarot Garden, Tuscany, Italy. 1985. Gelatin
Silver Print. 8x12 ” (21.3 x 31.5 cm). Photo & ©: Michiko Matsumoto

80 WORLD of ART