Editor's blog

October 31 is the final day for "Niki in the Garden," the stunning exhibition of 39 playful, larger-than-life mosaic sculptures now on display at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

The works in the critically acclaimed exhibition include exquisite, brilliantly colored Nanas, animals, heroes, and totems ranging from four to eighteen feet tall, some of them weighing more than a ton. Read the exhibition press release, take an audio-visual tour, or check out a review and a survey of Niki's life and work by critic David Bonetti — then hustle down to the Missouri Botanical Garden before it's too late. This is one show you don't want to miss.
 

You'll see work by Niki de Saint Phalle and other artistic pioneers in WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art.

Organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA), the touring exhibition opens 4 October at the Vancouver Art Gallery in British Columbia, where it will run through 18 January 2009.

The show ran previously at New York City's internationally renowned P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. For more detailed information, check out the announcements from MoCA and P.S.1 via our press page.
 

The Tarot Garden, the sculpture garden created by Niki de Saint Phalle in Tuscany between 1978 and 2002, is one of the world's 50 most beautiful gardens, says Tim Richardson of the Weekly Telegraph:

"Monumental figures, wittily realised in the artist's trademark bright colours, amorphous shapes and mosaic-work, many of which also serve as pavilions or small buildings, were based on tarot cards. The artist lived inside The Empress for a number of years. The interior has to be seen to be believed. ... The integrity of the artist shines out and one can only wonder at the sustained obsessional energy required to make it. One interesting aspect of the garden is that the pieces have been deliberately placed close together — crammed in, almost — so that the whole space can be experienced in one sustained gulp."
 

Education and research are fundamental to the mission of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. In the coming weeks, we'll be rolling out new resources for researchers, students, and educators, beginning with this detailed roster of individual exhibitions by Niki de Saint Phalle (from 1956 to the present), a list of museum collections worldwide with works by Niki de Saint Phalle, and a selected bibliography.

Upcoming additions will include further informational resources about Niki's life and work, materials designed for use by students and educators, and a guide to offline resources in the NCAF Archive for researchers.
 

Niki de Saint Phalle is one of 21 artists featured in Wunderkammer: Figur und Raum — von Archipenko bis Niki de Saint Phalle, a group exhibition at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany. The exhibition opens on 8 June and runs through 17 August 2008.

Other artists included in the show are Alexander Archipenko, Jean Arp, Francis Bacon, Max Beckmann, Rudolf Belling, Jean Dubuffet, Barbara Hepworth, Bernhard Hoetger, Alfred Hrdlicka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, R.B. Kitaj, Käthe Kollwitz, Henri Laurens, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Jacques Lipchitz, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Germaine Richier, and Kurt Schwitters.
 

Marking the opening of "Niki in the Garden" at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visual Arts Critic David Bonetti surveys the life and work of Niki de Saint Phalle, from her early association with the French Nouveau Réalistes and her sensational "shooting paintings" to her Nanas, the Tarot Garden in Tuscany, and other spectacular sculptures. The photo here shows Niki de Saint Phalle painting “Le Monde” in her studio in France circa 1981.

Photo by Laurent Condominas

"Niki in the Garden" opens this Sunday at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Journalist Kristen Hare visited a preview of the exhibition, along with Kim Treff and her three-year-old daughter Greta:

Since 2001, the garden has brought in outside art, including Chapungu, stone sculptures from Zimbabwe, and most notably the glass creations of Dale Chihuly. But nothing has invited participation the way Niki has.

On Sunday, Kim Treff of St. Louis watched as her daughter, Greta, 3, climbed around one of two giant, mosaiced lions.

Treff loved the colors, the size and how her daughter could explore it, she said, but it's not something you expect to see here.

Because of that, Lynn Kerkemeyer, special exhibitions manager for the garden, wasn't sure what people would think of Niki's pieces, all sculptures made of fiberglass and mosaic or painted polyester. They explode, she said, with color, light and brightness.

For all their beauty, Kerkemeyer thought, "they are very different from our formal garden."

Already, though, "we're just seeing people of all ages absolutely loving it," said Karen Hagenow, public relations coordinator with the garden.

"It's very accessible," she said. "Which is what's exciting about it."

Photo by Kristen Hare

Today in the St. Louis Beacon, journalist Kristen Hare tags along with five-year-old Cavi Wilson and his parents for a preview of the "Niki in the Garden" exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The garden is already one of Cavi's favorite places — but as Hare makes clear, "This is different."

Past stretches of green grass at the Missouri Botanical Garden, around open tulips and emerging tree buds sits a giant skull. Flashes of greens and yellows, oranges and reds pop out from glaring eye sockets. Nearly every inch sparkles under the Sunday sun. ...

Inside the skull, called "La Cabeza," Cavi’s family listen to their voices echo.

"Hey, this skull is pretty dangerous," Cavi decides, fixing his body in front of slick, nubby teeth where he can see a strip of grass, knees and bellies. Cavi pushes his skinny arms through and growls at people passing.

Most of them stop, eyes big, then step up and touch and duck inside.

"I like this," Mr. Wilson, who works in advertising, says to his wife, a stay-at-home mom. Walking through the formal garden and seeing a six-ton, mosaic-tile, fiberglass skull was a shock, he thought. "This is cool."

While La Coupole in Paris is showing photos of Niki de Saint Phalle's Tarot Garden in Tuscany, there's no reason for kids to feel left out. "Les boîtes à secrets de Niki" has its opening Wednesday 16 April at the Musée en Herbe, the beloved children's museum in the Jardin d'Acclimatation of the Bois de Boulogne.

The exhibition, presented with the generous support of the Mayor's Office of the City of Paris, will be on display through 2 January 2009. The Musée en Herbe is located in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris (Métro Les Sablons) and is open from 10 am until 6 pm, seven days a week. For information or reservations, you can call them at 01 40 67 00 37.
 

A stunning exhibition of photos of the Tarot Garden, the extraordinary sculpture garden created by Niki de Saint Phalle in Tuscany between 1978 and 2002, opens tomorrow at La Coupole in Paris.

"Niki de Saint Phalle: Le Jardin des Tarots" features 37 large-format photographs by Giulio Pietromarchi and Laurent Condominas. The show will be on display at the Parisian landmark from 16 April to 15 August 2008. If you're in Paris, you'll definitely want to check it out.