From 17 September to 25 October 2015, Museum Jan van der Togt dedicated an exhibition to the work of Niki de Saint Phalle. The exhibition showed, among other things, the monumental relief "Last Night I Had a Dream" from 1968, but also beautiful examples of the expressively colored Nana's, with which the Franco-American artist became world famous.
In 1961 Niki de Saint Phalle (1930 - 2002) - together with Jean Tinguely and the other artists of the group "Nouveaux Realistes" - took part in the iconic exhibition "Bewogen Beweging" in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. There she showed the work "Saint-Sebastien" (Portrait of my Lover), a white men's shirt with a dartboard as head. Visitors could throw arrows at it.
The Saint Phalle caused a sensation with its 'shooting paintings', plaster-covered virgin white canvases behind which bags of paint in bright colors were hidden. With a carbine she shot at the canvas that began to "bleed" violently in casual patterns. Dressed in a white overall, her shooting performance made it to the world press.
“I shot men, the church, society, that oppress women. It became an addiction. I had to stop after a while, "she said later about the shooting actions. "The shooting freed me from deep frustrations rooted in the oppressive, rigid environment of my childhood."
A year later De Saint Phalle took part in the exhibition "Dylaby" (Dynamic Labyrinth), also in the Stedelijk. A room full of prehistoric monsters, plastic animals and mannequin heads: everything painted white, set in motion with electric motors, made by Tinguely.
Her sculpture HON / ZIJ, which De Saint Phalle made with Tinguely and Per Olov Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, is striking. A huge reclining woman with access between her legs, where the audience, once inside, could drink a drink at the bar, listen to jazz, watch old films by, among others, Greta Garbo and admire paintings. The Swedish newspapers reported at the end of that year that the birth rate had doubled!
Her life's work is the "Giardino dei Tarocchi", the Tarot garden in Garavicchio, located in Tuscany. Friends gave her a piece of land where she created a magical garden in more than 15 years, based on the Great Arcana of the tarot game. She went to live in the III card of the game, the Empress, in the form of a sphinx. The Saint Phalle felt protected against setbacks and the scorching hot climate. The living room felt like a womb where she could relax. The 22 monumental statues are covered with ceramics, colored glass and mirror mosaics. In 1982 the Dutch artist Doc van Winsen came to help her make the steel constructions for the sculptures. De Saint Phalle was inspired by Gaudí's Parc Guell in Barcelona and the gardens of Bomarzo, nicknamed Park of the Monsters or Sacro Bosco, in Viterbo - central Italy - which was probably designed in the 16th century by Count Vicino Orsini in memory of his beloved wife who died young.
Together with her companion Jean Tinguely, De Saint Phalle designed the fountain on Place Igor Stravinsky near the Center Pompidou in Paris. 15 sculptures dance on the water or spray water, inspired by the music of Le Sacre du Printemps by Igor Stravinsky.