Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle, née Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint Phalle (October 29 1930 - May 21, 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.

The early years

She was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris to Jeanne Jacqueline (née Harper) and Andre Marie-Fal de Saint Phalle, a banker. After being wiped out financially during the Great Depression, the family moved from France to the United States in 1933. During her teens, she was a fashion model; at the age of sixteen she made the cover of Life magazine (September 26, 1946), and later the November 1952 cover of the French Vogue magazine. At eighteen, de Saint Phalle eloped with author Harry Mathews, whom she had known since the age of twelve, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. While her husband studied music at Harvard University, de Saint Phalle began to paint, experimenting with different media and styles. Their first child, Laura, was born in 1951.

Related Topics:
Neuilly-sur-Seine - Paris - Great Depression - France - United States - 1933 - Fashion model - Life magazine - September 26 - 1946 - November - 1952 - Vogue magazine - Harry Mathews - Harvard University - 1951

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She rejected the staid, conservative values of her family, which dictated domestic positions for wives and particular rules of conduct. However, after marrying young and giving birth to two children, she found herself living the same bourgeois lifestyle that she had attempted to reject; the internal conflict led to her to suffer a nervous breakdown. As a form of therapy, she was encouraged to start painting.

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While in Paris, de Saint Phalle was introduced to the American painter Hugh Weiss who became both her friend and mentor, encouraging her to continue painting in her self-taught style. She subsequently moved to Deya, Majorca, Spain where her son Philip was born in May of 1955. While in Spain, de Saint Phalle read the works of Proust and visited Madrid and Barcelona where she discovered and was consequently deeply affected by the work of Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi's influence opened many previously unimagined possibilities for Sainte Phalle regarding the use of diverse material and object-trouves as structural elements in sculpture and architecture. De Saint Phalle was particularly struck by Gaudi's "Park Güell" which convinced her to one day create her own garden work that would combine both art and nature. Saint Phalle continued to paint, particularly after her family relocated to Paris in the mid-1950s. Her first art exhibition was held in 1956 in Switzerland where she displayed naïve style oil paintings. She then moved onto collage work that often featured objects of violence, such as guns and knives.

Related Topics:
American - Hugh Weiss - Majorca - Spain - May - 1955 - Proust - Madrid - Barcelona - Antonio Gaudi - Park Güell - Art - Nature - 1956 - Switzerland - Naïve style - Collage

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