NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE
Name: Niki de Saint Phalle
Born: 29 October 1930
Died: 22 May 2002
Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnas Fal de Saint Phalle (October 29,
1930-May 22, 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.
Niki de Saint Phalle was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris to Jeanne Jacqueline
(nee Harper) and André-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, 1949), 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.
De Saint Phalle 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.
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 deeply affected by the work of Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi's
influence opened many previously unimagined possibilities for de Saint Phalle
regarding the use of diverse material and objet-trouves as structural elements
in sculpture and architecture. De Saint Phalle was particularly struck by Gaudi's
"Park Guell" 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 nave style oil paintings.
She then moved onto collage work that often featured objects of violence, such
as guns and knives.
Name: Niki de Saint Phalle
Born: 29 October 1930
Died: 22 May 2002
Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnas Fal de Saint Phalle (October 29,
1930-May 22, 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.
Niki de Saint Phalle was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris to Jeanne Jacqueline
(nee Harper) and André-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, 1949), 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.
De Saint Phalle 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.
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 deeply affected by the work of Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi's
influence opened many previously unimagined possibilities for de Saint Phalle
regarding the use of diverse material and objet-trouves as structural elements
in sculpture and architecture. De Saint Phalle was particularly struck by Gaudi's
"Park Guell" 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 nave style oil paintings.
She then moved onto collage work that often featured objects of violence, such
as guns and knives.