Missouri Botanical Garden - Niki 2008

On Guide: n2
Sculpture: Arbres Serpent
Location: Spoehrer Plaza

Catherine Marie-Agnes de Saint Phalle was born in 1930 to an aristocratic family in France and raised in New York City. She was a somewhat rebellious child, who preferred to be called Niki. In her early twenties she suffered a nervous breakdown and turned to visual art as a means of survival. Niki became the only female member of Europes most important post-World War II art movement, the New Realists. She collaborated with, and later married, the Swiss avant-garde artist Jean Tinguely.

Niki was a prolific, self-taught artist. Her work included illustrations and shooting paintings on which she fired a rifle at bags full of paint attached to wood or canvas. Niki used tales and myths as a springboard to create fantastic creatures of her imagination. Working freely and spontaneously, she made joyous works to celebrate the diversity of life.

Nikis art is well-known throughout Europe, South America, and Asia, where she traveled for inspiration. This exhibition provides just a brief introduction to her vast creativity. The playful, larger-than-life sculptures presented here are mostly her mosaics and later creationsthe art she made after moving to San Diego in the 1990s.

On Guide: n4
Sculpture: Chairs
Location: Linnean House

Niki was prolific in her production of large-scale sculpture and entire environments of art. But she also wanted to create pieces on a domestic scale that people could have in their homes. Chairs, Grand lphant vase, and even the Oiseau amoureux are examples of this period of her work.

Oiseau amoureux inside the Climatron was originally designed to be a giant kite for a worldwide traveling kite exhibition in 1988. Birds had a constant theme in Nikis workshe said some were immoral, sad, triumphant, hungry...or even in love.

On Guide: n5
Sculpture: Les Trois Grces
Location: Swift Family Garden

Nikis powerful, playful females decorated with hearts and flowers, called Nanas, are among her best known works. These voluptuous ladies have appeared in museums and outdoor sculpture exhibitions around the world.

Nana is French for the word chick or babe in American slang. Niki celebrated women as sources of life and vitality. She herself fit the popular cultures notion of beauty. As a teenager, she appeared as a fashion model on the covers of Life, Time and Vogue magazines. But Niki looked beyond the surface to what she felt was beautys true sourcea persons inner being.

Outside the Linnean House, Les Trois Grce dance joyfully in the reflecting pools. Les Trois Grces are based on a theme from Greek mythology. These ladies were also inspired by Matisses La Danse. In our English Woodland Garden, youll find a different artists interpretation of the same classical Three Graces theme, done in bronze.

In the pond on the Knolls, Nana on a Dolphin playfully expresses the communion of nature and femininity.

Inside the Climatron, Horus et sa Grace (n21) reflects Nikis travels to Egypt in the late Sixties and early Seventies and by her interest in mythology. With its color and curves, this piece juxtaposes the painted body of a Nana with the mirror mosaics of the Egyptian god's golden halo.

On Guide: n6
Sculpture: Bird Head Totem
Location: Gladney Rose Garden

My name is Marcelo Zitelli, I worked with Niki the last 16 years of her life and now I am a trustee of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation.

I met Niki in 1987 and I found a very open and charming person. Even if I was shy she talked to my like an equal, someone who was able to work directly with her. Right away we have a very good relationship and our relationship was based in our love of theatre. She wanted to be an actress when she was very young and I too was in theatre and Nikis work is always about telling a story.

When I met her she was very upset about one sculpture that she wanted to do but the studio that she normally work with was unavailable. I told her I was willing to try and Niki say ok, you have a month to do the sculpture and I finished in 10 days, so Niki said to quit working on my other project.

When began working together in the studio Niki needed to change the way she worked, which was to create a small model then send to a studio to be enlarged. Instead of sending the works someplace else, we built medium and large sized sculptures together in the studio.

Niki was always concerned about the people who needed more attention in society like women, Native Americans and African Americans, that why in her work, she was always trying to bring justice to those who were not recognized by the powerful member of the society.

We see this in her work with the Black Heroes. This body of her work was born from an article in the New York Times that downplayed the importance of black jazz musicians. Niki was angry about that. Thats how Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis came to be represented in her art.

On Guide: n6
Sculpture: Large Yelling Man Totem
Location: Gladney Rose Garden

Nikis Totems reveal her exploration of Native American culture and traditions. She always admired American Indian totems and felt they contained a spiritually protective, mysterious glow. She consulted Native American experts and invited them to monitor their ritualistic installation in her magical Queen Califias circle sculpture garden in California.

These sculptures are based on the structure, symbolism and spiritual art of Native American totem poles. They represent the rich textures as well as the pastel palette of Nikis last Californian mosaic style. Notice how they are covered in an extraordinary variety of materials.

While it may be hard to decode the meanings of the Totems, Niki subjects the creatures of the lower tiers to the protective or destructive power of the animals on the top. On Grand Step Totem, a Nana-like mother and her child are placed under a deity represented by a mask.

On Guide: n7
Sculpture: Nana on A Dolphin
Location: Dry Streambed Garden

Nikis powerful, playful females decorated with hearts and flowers, called Nanas, are among her best known works. These voluptuous ladies have appeared in museums and outdoor sculpture exhibitions around the world.

Nana is French for the word chick or babe in American slang. Niki celebrated women as sources of life and vitality. She herself fit the popular cultures notion of beauty. As a teenager, she appeared as a fashion model on the covers of Life, Time and Vogue magazines. But Niki looked beyond the surface to what she felt was beautys true sourcea persons inner being.

Outside the Linnean House, Les Trois Grce dance joyfully in the reflecting pools. Les Trois Grces are based on a theme from Greek mythology. These ladies were also inspired by Matisses La Danse. In our English Woodland Garden, youll find a different artists interpretation of the same classical Three Graces theme, done in bronze.

In the pond on the Knolls, Nana on a Dolphin playfully expresses the communion of nature and femininity.

Inside the Climatron, Horus et sa Grace (n21) reflects Nikis travels to Egypt in the late Sixties and early Seventies and by her interest in mythology. With its color and curves, this piece juxtaposes the painted body of a Nana with the mirror mosaics of the Egyptian gods golden halo.

On Guide: n9
Sculpture: Obelisque bleu avec des fleurs
Location: Museum Building

Niki was acutely aware of contemporary events and social crises. In the 1980s, several of her closest friends, including a studio assistant, became ill and died of AIDS. In response, Niki produced an art book about AIDS education and prevention, called You Cant Catch It Holding Hands, and also Obelisque bleu avec des fleurs.

Obelisque bleu avec des fleurs is commonly viewed as a simple decorated vertical column covered with flowers. That is the simplest description and generally the preferred explanation for children. Its true inspiration, however, is a monumental version of a decorated condom that Niki wanted to produce as part of an AIDS awareness campaign. True to herself, Niki used whimsy to address and create interest in a serious social issue.

On Guide: n10
Sculptures: #19 Baseball Player, #23 Basketball Player, and Golf Player
Location: Near Mausoleum

When Niki became a great-grandmother, she began to reflect on her own experiences growing up. She felt there were no strong female figures or cultural heroines to inspire her as a child. As she searched for inspirational role models for her bi-racial great-grandchild, Niki saw a lack of positive African-American heroes and cultural icons. She created a series of Black Heroes, representing historic personalities and positive male images to fill that need. You may recognize these three famous athletes as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Tony Gwynn, retired from the San Diego Padres.

On Guide: n11
Sculpture: Clarice again
Location: Near athletes (n10)

Clarice again, a painted polyester sculpture, is one of Nikis earliest works. She was inspired by the feminine curves of her pregnant friend Clarice, the wife of the American artist Larry Rivers. In 1965, Niki began to consider female figures as models for womens position in society. In Clarice again, you can see an early manifestation of her Nana series. Clarice is a full-figured everywoman who revitalizes the ancient form of a fertility goddess. She embodies a timeless concept in a contemporary form. Clarice again was originally made in 1965 and repainted red with vibrant polyester colors in 1967.

On Guide: n12
Sculpture: Guardian Lions
Location: Bottle Brush Buckeyes

By making gay, joyous sculpture maybe Im saying, Look, the world is awful but it is also great. So lets enjoy its greatness. My work is about color, the changing of colors for dreams and emotionsred, blue, yellow, green, purple. And its about roundness and the curves of nature. My work gives me hope, enthusiasm, structure. My work is my REAL DIARY.Niki de Saint Phalle