If you have access to ARTE, the Franco-German cultural TV channel, don’t miss “Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely: the Bonnie and Clyde of Art,” a 55-minute film by Anne Julien and Louise Faure. This “joyful hommage to the pair of sculptors and their magical creations” will be broadcast Monday
Here is ARTE’s description of the film:
“Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely meet in Paris in 1955, in the artistic ferment of the post-war period. They are 25 and 30 years old, both married. They become friends. Five years later, they have fallen in love and decide to live and create together. For forty years, in the course of their journey, the nomadic pair give birth not to children, but to sculptures, most of them monumental, all over the world — totems, said Niki de Saint Phalle, ‘to make people happy.’ And indeed, from Europe to Japan, their work has found a huge audience, delighting children and adults with his sacred machines and her colorful creatures. With magnificent archival footage and accounts from relatives, Louise Faure and Anne Julien recount their lives and their epic art, always so closely intertwined.”