The "magic reality" of Niki de Saint Phalle (1930 - 2002) sculpture relates to the visual vitality and affirmation of spirit found in Outsider Art.Throughout her work, no matter how extreme the image, there is an underlying innocence that has the power to gladden the heart and enchant the eye. Like Saint Phalle's well-known female figures, the Nanas, her art resonates with a "joyful noise."

Biography
Niki de Saint Phalle (1930 - 2002)

The "magic reality" of Saint Phalle's sculpture relates to the visual vitality and affirmation of spirit found in Outsider Art. Throughout her work, no matter how extreme the image, there is an underlying innocence that has the power to gladden the heart and enchant the eye. Like Saint Phalle's well-known female figures, the Nanas, her art resonates with a "joyful noise." Sculpture and maquettes represent two of Saint Phalle's current major projects-Noah's Ark in Jerusalem, collaboration with architect Mario Botta, and the Tarot Garden, a metaphysical sculpture garden that Saint Phalle has been constructing for more than 20 years in Tuscany. Also on view are Saint Phalle's innovative paintings called Tableaux Eclates described by Pontus Hulten, Director of the Tinguely Museum, Basel, Switzerland as 'paintings, but with a twist. These compositions break up, light up and move around."

Born in France in 1930,Saint Phalle grew up in New York City. Returning to France in the 1950s, she began an artistic career, which would shock and delight art audiences throughout Europe and America. Never formally trained, Saint Phalle's work is an ever-evolving expression of her own fantastic journey through life. As she explains, " I am condemned to reveal every joy, desire, tragedy and pain. It is all subjective. Nothing is secret. Luckily, people cannot always see what they look at."

Saint Phalle gained notoriety in the early 1960s for her tirs, paintings with embedded paint pouches that she shot at with rifle, revolver or sometimes a small cannon. The first series of Nanas in 1965 was followed by the outrageous collaboration Hon, a 20-foot high, 82-foot long, walk-in Nana at Stockholm's Moderna Museet. Significant public commissions include the Golem in Jerusalem, the Stravinsky Fountain - collaboration with her husband Jean Tinguely for the Centre Pompidou in Paris-and the Sun God, part of the Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego. Recently completed and unveiled is L'Ange Protecteur, a 33-foot high protecting angel commissioned by the Swiss Railroads for the station in Zurich, Switzerland.

The prolific Saint Phalle has designed costumes and sets for the ballet and theater, written and produced fiIms and plays and conceived and illustrated numerous artist books including AIDS-You Can't Catch It by Holding Hands, published in five languages. The space between the wonders of the perceptible world and an inner world conjured up through dreams and visions are a constant in all Saint Phalle's sculpture, painting and design.

Curriculum Vitae
Niki de St. Phalle
1930 Born Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
2002 Died

Selected Exhibitions
2003 Niki de Saint Phalle, 1930-2002, Her last images, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Traces, Galerie JGM Paris
1997 Art/Fashion, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, NY
1997 Made in France, Musée National d’Art Modern, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France
1993 Niki de Saint Phalle: L’invitation au muse, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1990 Art in Europe and America: The 1950’s and 1960’s, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1988 Ambiente Italia, XLIII Esposizione Internazionale d’arts: La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
1987 Fantastic Vision: Works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Roslyn, NY
1985 Nouveau Réalsime and Pop Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
1980 American Sculpture: Gifts of Howard and Jean Lipman, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1977 3 Collections: Grenoble-Marseille-Saint-Étienne, L’Avant-Garde
1960-1976, Musée Cantini, Marseilles
1977 Paris-New York: Un Album, Musé National de’Art Moderne, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France
1974 Niki de Saint Phalle: Projets et realizations d’architecture, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
1970-71 10th Anniversary of the Nouveaux Réalistes, Rotonda della Besana, Milan, Italy
1969 Contemporary American Sculpture Selection 2, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1968 Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1966 Four European Artist and the Figure, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1965 Niki de Saint Phalle, Gallery Alexandre Iolas, New York, NY
1964 Niki de Saint Phalle, The Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1964 Niki de Saint Phalle: You are my Dragon, Hanover Gallery, London, England
1961 Feu a Volonté, Galerie J., Paris, France
1961 Niki de Saint-Phalle, Kopcke Gallery, Copenhagen
1956 Niki Mathews New York Gemalde Gouachen, Galerie Restaurant Gotthard, St. Gallen, Switerland

Selected Public Collections
Niki Museum, Nasu, Japan
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Musée d’Art et d’Industrie, Saint-Etienne, France
Pinacoteca do Estado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, Purchase, NY
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
California State University Library, CA
The Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan
Schneider Children’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medican Center, New Hyde Park, Long Island, NY
ALCOA, Pittsburgh, PA
Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
Virland, Foundation, New Orleans, LA
The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA
Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France
The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Stuart Collection of Sculpture at University of California San Diego, CA
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Kunserhaus, Vienna, Austria
Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Banque Lambert, Brussles, Belgium
Tate Gallery, London, England
Victoria Albert Museum, London, England
Marie-Louise and Gunnat Didrikson Foundation, Helsinki, Finland
Musée d’Art Contemproain, Dunkerque, France
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland
Robert B. Mayer Memorial Loan Collection, Chicago, IL
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Iwaki Street Art Museum, Japan
The Menill Collection, Houston, TX
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Setagaya Art Museum, Japan
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Malmo Konsthall, Sweden