CURRENT & FUTURE EXHIBITIONS

 
Niki de Saint Phalle at the Château de Malbrouck

From 1 April to 29 August 2010, the Château de Malbrouck will present an exhibition dedicated to the work of Niki de Saint Phalle. The completely restored 15th-century Château de Malbrouck is located near Metz in northeastern France, a stone's throw from the German border. This exhibition is made possible through a collaboration with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation.
 

 
Niki Pieces Will Kick Off NMWA Sculpture Project in D.C.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., has announced that Niki de Saint Phalle will be the inaugural artist for the New York Avenue Sculpture Project, "a dynamic new space that will enhance D.C.'s public art profile by featuring changing installations of contemporary works by women."

"Her vibrant works celebrate women, children, heroes, diversity and love," says the NMWA press release. Four of Niki's sculptures will be installed on the 1200 block of New York Avenue in front of the museum. NMWA will dedicate this first phase of the sculpture project on 28 April 2010. For more information, visit www.nmwa.org/sculptureproject.

Read the Washington Post article about Niki de Saint Phalle and the Sculpture Project.
 

 
Niki and Jean, together again at the Bechtler Museum

Jackie Lupo writes in the Charlotte Daily about "Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely: Lifetime of Art Together and Apart," now at the Bechtler Museum:

"Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, partners in art and a married couple in life, are together again at the new Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.

"Charlotteans have fallen in love with the Saint Phalle Firebird in the museum's outdoor courtyard, but there's more inside. The museum's second-floor gallery is dedicated to both artists, who met and started working together in the '50s and were married in 1971.

"Visitors can see three of Tinguely's trademark kinetic sculptures along with several two-dimensional works. Saint Phalle is represented by 'nanas' in two and three dimensions, as well as several reliefs and drawings..."  Read the entire article.
 

 
 
RECENT EXHIBITIONS

 
Niki de Saint Phalle at the Armory Show – Modern

A one-person exhibition of works by Niki de Saint Phalle, including selected sculptures and works on paper, will be on view at the Nohra Haime Gallery booth No. 232 at the Armory Show – Modern.

The exhibition will feature two historic works from the 1960s: Old Master, a shooting painting in plaster, and My Frankenstein, a heart-shaped assemblage of found objects. Dawn, one of Saint Phalle's signature Nanas, will be the central focus of the exhibition, along with Double Tête and Trilogie des Obelisques. Furniture such as the Four Nanas Table, the Owl Chair and the Snake Chair will also be on view, along with her multiples California Nana and Couple Vase.

The artist's playful sense of caprice will be further revealed in the remarkable selection of works on paper, depicting almost naïve imaginary landscapes, creatures and symbolisms.

The exhibition will be open to the public on March 4–7, following a VIP preview on March 3. Learn more.
 

 
Le scatole dei segreti di Niki de Saint Phalle

Two years after a show devoted to Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, the cheerful and colorful universe of Niki de Saint Phalle — Tinguely's wife and artistic collaborator — has come to the Museo in Erba in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

Le scatole dei segreti di Niki de Saint Phalle, a child-friendly exhibition in the form of an interactive game, is the fruit of a collaboration between Lausanne's Center Culturel d'Aide à la Jeunesse and the Musée en Herbe in Paris. It consists of 14 modules exploring the artist's work, short texts and games. The show gives autonomous, active children a rare opportunity to dive into an artistic universe full of life, joy and color.

The exhibition, which opened 12 September 2009, will continue through 28 February 2010. Learn more.
 

Le scatole dei segreti di Niki de Saint Phalle
12 Sep 2009 – 28 Feb 2010
Museo in Erba · Bellinzona, Switzerland

 
Niki de Saint Phalle Retrospective in Rome

Italy's first major retrospective exhibition dedicated to Niki de Saint Phalle opened on 4 November 2009 at the Museum of the Rome Foundation (formerly Museo del Corso).

The exhibition presented more than 100 of Niki's works, exploring what organizers call "an extraordinary artistic path that goes beyond classifications and fashions, mingled with a tumultuous and fascinating life." The historic show included many paintings from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the famous polychrome Nanas for which Niki de Saint Phalle is famous throughout the world.

The exhibition, curated by Stefano Cecchetto, was co-produced and organized by Arthemisia Group in collaboration with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. The retrospective, sponsored by the Rome Foundation, was on exhibit from 4 November 2009 through 17 January 2010. Learn more.
 

Niki de Saint Phalle
4 Nov 2009 – 17 Jan 2010
Fondazione Roma Museo · Rome, Italy

 
Naples Museum of Art: Niki in the Mouse House

Work by Niki de Saint Phalle is included in The Mouse House: Works from the Olga Hirshhorn Collection, now showing at the Naples Museum of Art in Naples, Florida. The exhibition opened 1 October 2008 and runs through 28 June 2009. Learn more.
 

The Mouse House: Works from the Olga Hirshhorn Collection
1 Oct 2008 – 28 June 2009
Naples Museum of Art · Naples, Florida

 
Niki for Kids in Lausanne

For a kid's-eye view of Niki de Saint Phalle, visit Les boîtes à secrets de Niki at La Vallée de la Jeunesse in Lausanne. This unique exhibition, presented in the form of a game, leads children on a playful and educational journey tracing Niki's life and work in a series of 14 installations. The exhibition, offered in partnership with the Musée en Herbe in Paris, is designed for children as young as four but will captivate kids of all ages. It is on display through 21 June.

Learn more.

Les boîtes à secrets de Niki
20 Jan – 21 June 2009
La Vallée de la Jeunesse · Lausanne, Switzerland

 
Niki de Saint Phalle Solo Exhibition in Portugal

Niki de Saint Phalle's first solo exhibition in Portugal opened on 23 January at the Fundação Eugénio de Almeida in Évora.

Niki de Saint Phalle: Joie de Vivre – Alegria de Viver is "an unprecedented exposition of sculptures and engravings by one of the Pop Art movement's most emblematic names," the museum says, adding:

"The works of Niki de Saint Phalle are living pieces that exalt Love, Liberty and Woman. That speak of internal transformations and the labyrinths of the unconscious. And also of good and evil, of laughter, of tenderness, of fear... The artist's universe is playful, irreverent; it is made of sinuous lines and forms, illuminated by explosive colors and pregnant with humor."

The exhibition is on display through 24 May.

Niki de Saint Phalle: Joie de Vivre – Alegria de Viver
23 Jan – 24 May 2009
Fundação Eugénio de Almeida · Évora, Portugal

 
Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Time

Sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle are among the masterworks in Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Time, now showing at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The exhibition showcases 45 masterpieces of modern sculpture and addresses how ideas about the medium, size, presentation, patronage, and techniques of sculpture in the 20th and 21st centuries have created exciting and startling new possibilities for the medium.

Other sculptors included in the group show, dating from the late 19th century to the present, include Alexander Archipenko, Fernando Botero, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Duane Hanson, Keith Haring, Lisa Lou, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Marc Quinn, Auguste Rodin, David Smith, Sue Webster and Tim Noble.

The exhibition, which opened on 24 January, will run through 24 May 2009. Learn more.

Shown: Niki de Saint Phalle, Nana with Serpent. Painted plaster, 29 x 16 x 10 in. Collection of Sachiko and Lawrence Goodman. © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Paul Mutino.

Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Time
24 Jan – 24 May 2009
Bruce Museum · Greenwich, Connecticut

 
Missouri Botanical Garden Hosts 'Niki in the Garden'

From April 27 through October 31, the Missouri Botanical Garden hosted Niki in the Garden, an exhibition of 39 playful, larger-than-life mosaic sculptures in a rainbow of colors and materials. Gathered from around the world and placed throughout the garden, the works on exhibit included Nanas, animals, heroes, and totems, ranging from four to eighteen feet tall and some weighing a ton or more.

In the St. Louis Beacon, journalist Kristen Hare tagged along with five-year-old Cavi Wilson and his parents for a preview of "Niki in the Garden," while the St. Louis Post-Dispatch surveyed Niki's life and work and offered an audio slideshow narrated by Marcelo Zitelli, trustee of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation.

Niki in the Garden
27 Apr – 31 Oct 2008
Missouri Botanical Garden · St. Louis, Missouri

 
Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution

Work by Niki de Saint Phalle was included in WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art.

The touring exhibition, organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA), opened on 4 October 2008 at the Vancouver Art Gallery in British Columbia, where it showed through 18 January 2009.

The exhibition had run previously at New York City's internationally renowned P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a museum devoted solely to contemporary art and affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
4 Oct 2008 – 18 Jan 2009
Vancouver Art Gallery · Vancouver, British Columbia

 
Niki for Kids at the Musée en Herbe

Les boîtes à secrets de Niki had its opening Wednesday 16 April 2008 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, was on display through 2 January 2009. Learn more.

Les boîtes à secrets de Niki
16 Apr 2008 – 2 Jan 2009
Musée en Herbe · France

 
Niki de Saint Phalle at the Sprengel Museum Hannover

Niki de Saint Phalle was 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. Other artists included in the show were 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.

Wunderkammer: Figur und Raum — von Archipenko bis Niki de Saint Phalle
8 June – 17 Aug 2008
Sprengel Museum Hannover · Hannover, Germany

 
'Le Jardin des Tarots' in Photos at La Coupole

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, was on display from 16 April through 15 August 2008 at La Coupole in Paris. Niki de Saint Phalle: Le Jardin des Tarots featured 37 large-format photographs by Giulio Pietromarchi and Laurent Condominas.

Niki de Saint Phalle: Le Jardin des Tarots
16 Apr – 15 Aug 2008
La Coupole · Paris, France

 
Niki de Saint Phalle Retrospective at the Tate Liverpool

The Tate Liverpool presented the first English museum exhibition of the work of Niki de Saint Phalle. "Beautiful, flamboyant, daring, provocative and fiercely independent," said the Tate, "she emerged in the 1960s as a powerful and original figure in the highly masculine international arts world." The exhibition, which ran from 1 February to 5 May 2008, included her acclaimed shooting paintings and larger sculptural works.

Niki de Saint Phalle
1 Feb – 5 May 2008
Tate Liverpool · Liverpool, England

 
Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution

Work by Niki de Saint Phalle is included in WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art.

The touring exhibition, organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA), opened on 17 February 2008 at New York City's internationally renowned P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a museum devoted solely to contemporary art and affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It ran through 12 May 2008.

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
17 Feb – 31 May 2008
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center · Long Island City, New York

 
Niki's 'Louis Armstrong' in Florida

The Sarasota Season of Sculpture presented Louis Armstrong, a large-scale sculpture of the legendary musician by Niki de Saint Phalle. The towering sculpture, which was installed on the grounds of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art between the historic Cà d'Zan Gatehouse and the main entrance to the John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion, was on display from 9 November 2007 through 26 May 2008.

Sarasota Season of Sculpture
11 Nov 2007 – 26 May 2008
Ringling Museum of Art · Sarasota, Florida

 
Niki de Saint Phalle: A Spiritual Path

The installation Niki de Saint Phalle: A Spiritual Path was on display at the museum of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, from 10 November 2007 through 27 January 2008. Learn more.

Niki de Saint Phalle: A Spiritual Path
10 Nov 2007 – 27 Jan 2008
California Center for the Arts · Escondido, California

 
Niki & Jean: Kunst und Liebe

Niki & Jean: Kunst und Liebe ran from 30 September 2007 to 6 January 2008 at the Ulmer Museum in Ulm, Germany. The exhibition was presented in collaboration with the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, the Museum Tinguely in Basel, and the Niki Charitable Art Foundation.
 

Niki & Jean: Kunst und Liebe
30 Sep 2007 – 6 Jan 2008
Ulmer Museum · Ulm, Germany

 
Chicago: 'Niki in the Garden'

From the exhibition web site:

"Featuring over 30 extraordinarily colorful and whimsical outdoor sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, this spectacular exhibition will grace the breathtaking Garfield Park Conservatory inside and out. Bejeweled with mosaics, stones, glass, mirrors and semi-precious materials, the pieces displayed include animals, mythical figures, sports and music heroes, and of course, Nanas."

See kindergartener Sara Jacobs' video tour of two of the sculptures at the Garfield Park Conservatory exhibition.

Niki in the Garden
4 May – 31 Oct 2007
Garfield Park Conservatory · Chicago, Illinois