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Lot Essay
In 1955 Niki de Saint Phalle met Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely with whom she would begin a lifelong relationship, moving in with him at the end of 1960. It was Tinguely who introduced de Saint Phalle to the Nouveaux Réalistes, a group of young artists around the critic Pierre Restany, among them Arman, César, and Spoerri. The influence of their multi-media approach to art, stemming from a desire for a closer relationship between art and reality, can be discerned in de Saint Phalle's first successful series, The Shooting Paintings. Created through acts of destruction that combined performance, action and spectacle, white sculptures and assemblages with embedded containers of paint were shot at with rifles, releasing the colorful paint within. Such works allowed her to transfer her explosive anger over the prejudice, discrimination, and violence she perceived in the world around her into her work; in the words of the artist herself, "Instead of becoming a political terrorist, I became a terrorist in art."
Gradually, de Saint Phalle's Shooting Paintings began to express a more specific anger, aimed at the suffocating situations faced by women, incorporating decidedly feminine found objects like high heels, curlers, and kitchen utensils. Then, rather abruptly, her anger seemed to dissipate, replaced by a desire to ground her artistic discussion of women's place in society through an exploration of female archetypes. Inspired by the pregnancy of her close friend Clarisse Rivers, the wife of American artist Larry Rivers, de Saint Phalle embarked on what is perhaps her most famous series, the Nanas.
These brightly painted interpretations of the "everywoman," crafted of papier-mâché, yarn, and cloth, were first exhibited in September, 1965, at the Galerie Alexander Iolas in Paris. Round-bodied, brash, and bursting with energy and power, the Nanas, of which Adriana is one, present joyous symbols of female strength and self-confidence. The Nanas continued as a substantial element of de Saint Phalle's artistic practice, growing in size to become, in one instance from 1966, a sculptural environment entered from between the woman's legs. De Saint Phalle continued to work both in France and America until her death in May, 2002.
Gradually, de Saint Phalle's Shooting Paintings began to express a more specific anger, aimed at the suffocating situations faced by women, incorporating decidedly feminine found objects like high heels, curlers, and kitchen utensils. Then, rather abruptly, her anger seemed to dissipate, replaced by a desire to ground her artistic discussion of women's place in society through an exploration of female archetypes. Inspired by the pregnancy of her close friend Clarisse Rivers, the wife of American artist Larry Rivers, de Saint Phalle embarked on what is perhaps her most famous series, the Nanas.
These brightly painted interpretations of the "everywoman," crafted of papier-mâché, yarn, and cloth, were first exhibited in September, 1965, at the Galerie Alexander Iolas in Paris. Round-bodied, brash, and bursting with energy and power, the Nanas, of which Adriana is one, present joyous symbols of female strength and self-confidence. The Nanas continued as a substantial element of de Saint Phalle's artistic practice, growing in size to become, in one instance from 1966, a sculptural environment entered from between the woman's legs. De Saint Phalle continued to work both in France and America until her death in May, 2002.