Museum Jan van der Togt, Amstelveen
September 17, 2015 – October 25, 2015
From September 17 to October 25, 2015, Museum Jan van der Togt, in collaboration with Gallery Delaive, hosted an exhibition dedicated to the work of Niki de Saint Phalle. The exhibition featured the monumental relief “Last Night I Had a Dream” (1968) and vibrant examples of her famous Nana sculptures.
In 1961, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) participated in the iconic “Bewogen Beweging” exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam with the Nouveaux Realistes group. She exhibited “Saint-Sebastien” (Portrait of My Lover), a white men’s shirt with a dartboard head, inviting visitors to throw darts at it.
Saint Phalle gained fame with her ‘shooting paintings,’ where she shot at plaster-covered canvases filled with paint bags, causing them to ‘bleed’ in colorful patterns. She described these actions as a release from deep frustrations rooted in her oppressive childhood.
A year later, she joined the “Dylaby” (Dynamic Labyrinth) exhibition at the Stedelijk, showcasing a room filled with moving, white-painted prehistoric monsters, plastic animals, and mannequins created by Jean Tinguely. One of her notable works is HON / SHE, created with Tinguely and Per Olov Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. This giant reclining woman sculpture allowed visitors to enter through her legs and explore a bar, jazz lounge, film screenings, and paintings inside.
Her magnum opus is the “Giardino dei Tarocchi” in Garavicchio, Tuscany—a magical garden inspired by the Tarot’s Major Arcana. Over 15 years, she created 22 monumental sculptures covered in ceramics, colored glass, and mirror mosaics.
Museum Jan van der Togt brings together work from all these periods to create a thoroughly insightful and colourful exhibition displaying the intricate and ingenious visual language of this Post-War artist.
The exhibition will be on view from September 17, 2015 – October 25, 2015
