Niki de_Saint_Phalle (French, 1930-2002)

Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor, writer, stage designer and film maker, was born outside Paris in 1930. A self-taught artist, Saint Phalle created a sensation in the 1960’s when she started firing guns at her canvases during her performances, occasionally joined by American Pop Art pioneers Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Her most famous series of works are large-scale whimsical sculptures of women which examine the various roles of women in society. Saint Phalle’s most ambitious artistic undertaking is her Giardino dei Tarocchi (The Tarot Garden) a fantastic garden full of imaginary creatures and dream architecture reminiscent of Tarot cards located in Tuscany and completed after twenty years and opened in 1998. Her work can be seen in public collections including: the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Tate Modern, London; and the Stedeijk Museum, Amsterdam.