Beautiful, flamboyant, daring and fiercely independent, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) emerged in the 1960s as a powerful and original figure in the male-dominated art world centred on Paris. She began as a model for Vogue and appeared in many other fashion magazines. After an accident, she discovered her passion for art. She had already made her mark by the early 1960s, when she embarked on her famous Shooting Paintings, in which parcels of paint hidden under the plaster surface of the picture were exploded by being shot at with a 2.2 rifle, seen by many as a satirical comment on the machismo of action painting.Aspects of femininity and the representation of womanhood were enduring themes. Her Nanas were brightly-coloured, archetypal female forms, varying from life-size to gargantuan, often depicting brides or motherhood, dazzlingly decorated with mirrors or mosaics. De Saint Phalle worked with some of the world's leading artists and architects, including Tinguely, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers and Mario Botta.
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(corbis, Bill Ray, www.tate.org.)
