Niki de Saint PhalleThe couple
2000
sculpture painted
Signed and numbered
12.2 x 7.48 x 6.69 in ( 31 x 19 x 17 cm )ZoomInquiry - The couple, 2000
Provenance
Private Collection, Belgium
Artwork's description
Niki de Saint Phalle est l'une des grandes figures des Nouveaux Réalistes. Toutes ses réalisations sont audacieuses et abordent un caractère politique et féministe. Ce sont des causes qui lui tiennent particulièrement à c?ur. L'artiste considère que ces "femmes ", ces "nanas" sont révolutionnaires et qu?elles portent en elles le désir d'aller vers des émotions, des choses réprimées par la société. Niki était mariée à Jean Tinguely, célèbre sculpteur. Cette oeuvre fait sans doute référence aux deux artistes qui dansent main dans la main.
Artist's biography
Niki de Saint Phalle is a plastic artist, painter, sculptor and French-American director, born in 1930 in Neuilly-sur –Seine.
His childhood was very tormented and traumatic between the stock market crash and his father's mistreatment, which de Saint-Phalle found in art over the years a kind of therapy. After her hospitalization in a psychiatric center, from the early 1950s, she went to Spain, where she discovered the work of the architect Gaudi in Barcelona. In 1956, she returned to Paris and joined the group of New Realists and met Jean Tinguely who became her husband and his assistant. They had a very good bond and worked together on many projects, including the Tarot garden, inaugurated in 1998. Niki de Saint Phalle, in addition to her fight against an overconsumption society, is also committed to the freedom of women and fights against masochism, racism in the United States, etc. She is a self-taught artist who drew inspiration from her experiences in her private life and in her political battles.
"I was fortunate to meet art because I had, psychically, everything it takes to become a terrorist. Instead I used the rifle for a good cause, that of art." Niki de Saint-Phalle
She died on May 21 in the United States, following a respiratory illness.
