Blogs

Art Daily writes about the new exhibition now at Nohra Haime Gallery in New York City:

"Selected historical sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle are on view at the Nohra Haime Gallery from August 2 through August 29, 2012. The exhibition includes Dawn, one of her signature and richly colored Nanas, along with her mystical figures, Double Tête and Horus et Sa Grace. Two examples of Saint Phalle's furniture, such as Clarice Chaise Femme and Charly, also are featured. Providing a distinct and more intimate look into the artist's ambitious and inventive work, this exhibition runs in conjunction with Niki de Saint Phalle on Park Avenue, a major site-specific installation including nine monumental sculptures standing along Park Avenue from 52nd to 60th Streets."  Read more.

Kelsey Savage Hays in Auction Central News International on the public installation of sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle on Park Avenue in New York City:

"Marking the 10-year anniversary of Niki de Saint Phalle's death, an installation of her curvy, joyful women dance along Park Avenue. The sculptures, created out of polyester resin, some with mosaics of ceramic and glass, memorialize the achievement of the French artist whose work incorporates a joie de vivre as big as a New York summer. The vibrant women meld perfectly with all the color surrounding them on the iconic avenue — vibrant sundresses, the perfect summer blue sky, men's rainbow ties.

"Les Baigneurs starts the exhibition, which runs down from 60th Street and encompasses nine pieces including works from her tribute to jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, and her Grand Step Totem."  Read more.

With a major public installation of works by Niki de Saint Phalle about to begin on New York's Park Avenue, NCAF Trustee Bloum Cardenas was interviewed by Good Day New York this morning live from the heart of Manhattan. "I'm very proud to see sculptures by Niki here," Bloum said. "She grew up in this town, and thanks to Nohra Haime, she's back in this town. It's wonderful. We're very proud." Standing in front of The Three Graces, she added, "Niki did a lot of sculptures about women — she was an early feminist. But she was also very playful, and loved to have sculptures be used by children and not intimidate children, so they could realize that art is accessible to everyone."

Nohra Haime Gallery will present Niki de Saint Phalle on Park Avenue from 12 July – 15 November 2012. This major public exhibit — which will be on display on Park Avenue between 52nd and 60th Streets in New York City — will include nine monumental sculptures and feature Saint Phalle's signature nanas and totems, as well as works from her iconic Black Heroes Series depicting legendary jazz musicians and athletes. Learn more.
 

On Saturday 2 June, "EXPLOSION! Painting as Action" opened at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The museum describes this breathtaking exhibition thus:

"Explosion explores the rich and complex cross fertilizations and borderlands of painting, performance and conceptual art. It traces this expanded idea of painting as action from late 1940s until today. The exhibition will include works in different media by some 45 artists from many parts of the world — such as the important Japanese Gutai group, including Shozo Shimamoto, Sadamasa Motonaga, Saburo Murakami and Kazuo Shiraga, along with such artists as Allan Kaprow, Jackson Pollock, Niki de Saint Phalle, Yves Klein, Ana Mendieta, Alison Knowles, Rivane Neuenschwander, Yoko Ono and Lawrence Weiner.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of Niki de Saint Phalle's death. Today we celebrate her life, her work, and the joie de vivre she brought to everything she did. We recall her spirit, her courage, her generosity. We are grateful to have shared this world with her. Niki, we miss you.
 

If you'd like to know more about Le Cyclop, the massive sculpture built by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle in Milly-la-Forêt, France, here's your chance. Completed over the course of three decades with the help of fellow artists Arman, César, Marcel Duchamp, Larry Rivers, and JR Soto, the enormous structure is now the subject of a cycle of conferences exploring the images that inspired its construction and the artists who realized it.

The series, entitled "Le Cyclop, un aller retour vers le futur...," is being held in the Espace Culturel Paul Bédu at 8 bis rue Farnault, 91490 Milly-la-Forêt on 12 April, 3 May, and 31 May 2012 from 6:30 to 8:00pm. The sessions are being led by art historian Caroline Soyez-Petithomme, co-director of the art space La Salle de Bain in Lyon.

For more information about the conference series or the work itself, you can also visit the Le Cyclop web site.
 

How do Taiwanese kids play with "shooting art"? Take a look! From the Quanta Foundation's Niki Traveling Exhibition 2008-2011, here's a glimpse of what happens when nine Taiwanese cities, 69 schools, and more than 90,000 people meet Niki de Saint Phalle.
 

This summer, Moderna Museet Malmö will be featuring "The Girl, the Monster and the Goddess," an exhibition of works by Niki de Saint Phalle:

"With unique imagination and creativity, [Saint Phalle] tirelessly delved into eternal and existential subjects such as power and powerlessness, destructive social patterns, gender, love and sexuality. Her prolific artistic output covers a range spanning from artist books and films to monumental sculpture projects. In both her art and her personal life, she reminds us of the inner force that can conquer fear and help us step out into life as ourselves.

"The exhibition with Niki de Saint Phalle launches a new series of presentations focusing on seminal artists that are especially relevant to the Moderna Museet collection. It is both pleasing and logical to start the series by featuring Niki de Saint Phalle, since her sculpture group Paradise and her internationally acclaimed exhibition SHE [Hon] have been highly important to the history of Moderna Museet, both in Sweden and internationally."

From part one of a new interview with Allison Unruh and Kalliopi Minioudaki by Michael Dooley on "Pop and Politics," part of the College Art Association's 100th annual conference held recently in Los Angeles:

"...Our main goal was to 'promote discussion about previously overlooked intersections of Pop and politics in its varied international contexts, and to forge new ways of thinking about the political in the context of Pop.' There have been, of course, productive denouncements of Pop's superficiality in light of significant previous investigations of some of Pop’s meaningful social and political dimensions, and there seems to be a recent consensus about the criticality of Pop's often ambiguous — simultaneously celebratory and critical — embrace of pop culture. But we agreed that there remains a need to further investigate the various political aspects of Pop in greater depth." Read more.