On March 4, 1962, in a parking lot off Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, Niki de Saint Phalle organized her first shooting performance in the United States. Starting in late 1960, Saint Phalle began creating her Tirs (Shooting Paintings) that are assemblages made up of a wide range of materials with concealed paint containers, and then were shot by pistol, rifle, or even cannon fire.
“It was an amazing feeling shooting at a painting and watching it transform into a new being. It was not only EXCITING and SEXY, but TRAGIC - as though one were witnessing a birth and death at the same moment. It was a MYSTERIOUS event that completely captivated anyone who shot."
Niki de Saint Phalle’s first public exhibition demonstrating her shooting paintings was in June of 1961 at Galerie J in Paris gaining a great deal of attention, and by 1962 she had created and shot a number of Tirs. They ranged in size and form, most hanging wall pieces, but also free-standing abstract sculptures. As the spectacles grew, so did the Tirs into large “tableaux”. A number of newspapers began publishing articles about the “Duchess with a rifle”.
Niki de Saint Phalle first started shooting at the paintings to channel her anger on a number of subjects. It transformed into a thrill and spectacle, filling her with excitement and becoming a ritual for her. Scholar Sarah Wilson writes in the 2015 exhibition catalogue for Guggenheim Bilbao:
“The Tirs, with their crack of sound, divide time into a before and after. Life versus death; apprehensive fear versus body-shock; perpetrator versus victim; male versus female — or, as Niki suggests, female versus male… The Tirs perform, metonymically, the actual passage between life and death, while Niki, their author and their instrument, insists with humor, with rage and with éclat upon the gendered nature of all experience, all looking, at every moment.”
The shooting events brought crowds that were equally excited to see the performance. By early 1962, Niki de Saint Phalle started wearing a shooting outfit of an all white body suit and a pair of black boots that she would continue to wear for her shooting performances.
Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles sponsored the shooting performance, offering Niki de Saint Phalle a parking lot off of Sunset Strip. She began constructing the piece on March 1st, using an assortment of materials ranging from ladders, stairwells, house hold items, toys, and much more. Saint Phalle also included some figurative elements like a dragon and a snake. These themes are visible throughout Saint Phalle’s work. By Sunday, March 4th, a 20 foot long piece was erected, painted white, and ready to be shot at.
At 4 pm a crowd of artists, dealers, critics, collectors, friends of the gallery and passerby’s had formed to watch the performance. Artist Robert Rauschenberg, artist and art critic Arthur Secunda, and dealers Frank Perls and Leo Castelli, were some of those in attendance. Niki de Saint Phalle, with the assistance of Jean Tinguely and Ed Kienholz, began shooting at Tir Tableau. Then she climbed a ladder and fired away as the crowd watch in an awe. The Beverly Hills Times reports on March 8th, 1962:
“Many in the crowd felt a mysterious and gay sense of merry fulfillment as beer and enamel sprayed an unpredictable rainbow across the torso of the “castle” in drips, drools and sputters that any action painter worth his salt would envy.”
Arthur Secunda describes the happenings of that day:
“It was half entertainment, half art, half fantasy. And we were all confused by it I think but we loved it because we loved her. You know, with the boots and the white costume and… She took is so seriously, you know, so we did too. And it was fantastic. It was very childlike, too, in a wonderful adorable way.”
While Tir Tableau Sunset Strip did not survive in entirety, some elements have. One element, a vacuum cleaner, is currently part of The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas.
Sunset Strip was the first US shooting performance, but certainly not the last. Virginia Dwan, the famed L.A. gallerist, led the way with presenting avant-garde and groundbreaking exhibitions. She invited Niki de Saint Phalle to the hills above her Malibu home and purchased the Tableau after the performance. Dwan Gallery was also one that exhibited many of the artists that attended Saint Phalle’s Sunset Strip shooting event or were part of the Nouveau Réalistes group, like Edward Kienholz, Arman Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, and Robert Rauschenberg. After Tir Tableau Sunset Strip, Niki de Saint Phalle did another shooting performance in the hills of Malibu.
In 1963, Niki de Saint Phalle returned to Los Angeles at Dwan’s request. She would create another large Tableau, King Kong, at the Dwan Gallery. Then in January of 1964, Dwan organized an exhibition of Saint Phalle’s works created during her time there in Los Angeles, along with King Kong.
Saint Phalle continued her shooting paintings through 1962, many expanding beyond plaster and paint and having additional narratives; pieces like her Altars, Cathedrals, and figurative reliefs, like La Sorciere rouge, and the political piece Kennedy-Krouchtchev. Other works with political narratives were Heads of State within the tableau King Kong held since 1972 by Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Pirodactyl over New York. Come near the end of 1963, Niki de Saint Phalle moved in a new direction with her art. She put down her gun and began creating art with a female narrative of various roles of women in society depicting brides, hearts, whores and births, eventually leading to her infamous Nanas.
“Why did I give up the shooting after only two years? I felt like a drug addict. After a shoot-out I felt completely stoned. I became hooked on this macabre yet joyous ritual. It got to the point where I lost control, my heart pounding during shoot-outs… I don’t like losing control. It scares me and I hate the idea of being addicted to something - so I gave it up.”
“I was lucky to encounter art, because I had, on a psychological level, all it takes to become a terrorist. Instead of that I used the rifle for a good cause—that of art.”