1930
Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint Phalle is born at Neuilly-sure-Seine at 0640
on the morning of 29 October. Her birth sign is Scorpio (with Scorpio in the
ascendant). She is the second of five children born to Jeanne Jacqueline and
Andre Marie-Fal de Saint Phalle. Her father is one of seven brothers with a
share in the family's banking house. He had become manager of its New York branch
in 1927 but when the stock-exchange collapsed in 1930 he lost both the business
and his entire fortune. Marie-Agnes and her brother John are sent to their paternal
grandparents in France and spend the next three years in Nievre.
1933
Marie-Agnes and John return to their parents in Greenwich, Connecticut. Every
year they spend their summer holidays at the Chateau of Filerval, which had
been built by Le Nôtre and which now belongs to their American grandfather.
1937
The family moves into an apartment on East 88th Street, New York. Marie-Agnes,
now known as Niki de Saint Phalle, attends the Convent School of the Sacred
Heart in East 91st Street.
1941
Niki de Saint Phalle is expelled from the Convent School. She moves to Princeton,
New Jersey, to live with her grandparents, who have left France during the Second
World War. She attends the local public school.
1942
Niki de Saint Phalle returns to her parents' home and attends Brearley School,
New York. She reads Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare and Greek tragedy. She takes
part in school perfomances and writes her first poems and plays.
1944
In the opinion of her headmistress, Niki de Saint Phalle's behaviour is such
that she sould either have psychiatric treatment or leave school. Her parents
send her to a Convent School at Suffren, New York State.
1947
Niki de Saint Phalle graduates from Oldfield School, Maryland
1948/49
She works as a model. Photographs of her appear in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar
and on the cover of Life magazine. In June Niki de Saint Phalle, 18,
elopes with Harry Mathews, 19 a US marine.
1950
Niki de Saint Phalle and Harry Mathews settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He
studies music at Harvard University, she begins to paint. She produces her first
oils and gouaches.
1951
Their daughter, Laura, is born in Boston
1952
Niki de Saint Phalle, Harry and Laura leave Boston and move into an apartment
in the Rue Jean Dolent in Paris. Harry Mathews studies music in the hope of
becoming a conductor. Niki de Saint Phalle studies drama. They both take charge
of their daughter's education. The family spends the summer months in the South
of France, Spain and Italy.
1953
Niki de Saint Phalle suffers a severe nervous breakdown and is treated as an
in-patient in Nice. Since painting helps her to overcome this crisis in her
life, she decides to give up acting and become an artist. At the same time Harry
abandons his music studies and writes his first novel.
1954
In March Niki de Saint Phalle and Harry Mathews buy their first car in Nice.
They drive back to Paris, where they share a house with Anthony Bonner, and
American jazz musician and composer. Niki de Saint Phalle is introduced to the
American painter, Hugh Weiss, who remains her mentor for five years and who
encourages her to retain her autodidactic style. In September Niki de Saint
Phalle, Harry and Laura Mathews move to Deyá on the island of Mallorca.
1955
Their son Philip is born in March. Niki de Saint Phalle visits Madrid and Barcelona,
where she discovers Gaudí. The experience changes her life and lays the seeds
for her later decision to design her own sculpture park. In August the family
returns to Paris and moves into a small apartment in the Rue Alfred Durand-Claye.
During 1955 Niki de Saint Phalle meets Jean Tinguely and his wife, Eva Aeppli.
She often visits the Louvre and gets to know the work of Paul Klee, Henri Matisse,
Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau. She also visits Joseph Ferdinand Cheval's
fantastic castle Le Palais ideal in Hauterives.
1956-58
The Mathews family lives in Lans-en-Vercors in the French Alps. Niki de Saint
Phalle Mathews produces a series of oil paintings which she exhibits for the
first time in St. Gallen in 1956. Through her husband she meets many contemporary
writers, including John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch.
1959
Niki de Saint Phalle Mathews visits the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
and is introduced to work by the American artists Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning,
Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg.
1960
Niki de Saint Phalle and Harry Mathews are divorced; he moves to the Rue de
Varenne with their children, while Niki de Saint Phalle remains in the Rue Alfred
Durand-Claye. She continues her artistic experiments, producing assemblages
in plaster and 'target' pictures. At the end of 1960 she and Jean Tinguely move
into the Impasse Ronsin, where they share the same studio. Jean Tinguely introduces
her to Pontus Hulten, the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. He helps
her to take part in important exhibitions which are being held at this time
and buys a number of her works fo the Moderna Museet.
1961
During February a group exhibition is held at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la
Ville de Paris under the title Comparison: Peinture sculpture. Niki de
Saint Phalle exhibits her first work - a 'target' montage titled Portrait
of My Love. On 12 February she organises the ifrst of more than twelve 'shootings'
which are held in 1961 and 1962. These events involve sculptures and assemblages
incorporating containers of paint which, concealed beneath the plaster, spatter
their contents over the image when shot with a pistol. The resultant pictures
are known as 'shooting paintings'. Among spectators at the first such event
are members of the Nouveaux Realistes. Pierre Restany invites Niki de Saint
Phalle to join the group, which already includes Arman, Cesar, Christo, Gerard
Deschamps, François Dufrene, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Mimmo
Rotella, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques de la Villegle. In March
she takes part in an exhibition, Bewogen Beweging, organised by Pontus Hulten
at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Her works are later shown in the Moderna
Museet in Stockholm and the Louisiana Museum in the Danish town of Humlebaek.
In june she holds her first one-woman exhibition at Jeannine Restany's Galerie
J. Leo Castelli, Robert Rauschenberg and all the Nouveaux Realistes attend the
launch. Rauschenberg buys a 'shooting painting'. On 20 June Jasper Johns, Robert
Rauschenberg, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely take part in a concert
in the American Embassy in Paris. While David Tudor plays music by John Cage
on the piano, other works of art are created on stage.
Pierre Restany organizes a Festival of Nouveaux Realistes at the Galerie Muratore
in Nice. For the official opening Niki de Saint Phalle arranges a 'shooting'
at the Abbaye Roseland at which the Nouveaux Realistes take part. Marcel Duchamp
introduces Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely to Salvador Dalí. During a
trip to Spain in August both artists are invited to take part in celebrations
in honour of Dalí. They create a lifesize bull made of plaster and paper which
explodes in the Arena at Figueras during a firework display. In October Niki
de Saint Phalle takes part in The Art of Assemblage exhibition at The
Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition subsequently travels to the
Dallas Museum for Contemporary Art and the San Francisco Museum of Art.
Between June and September more than fifty international magazines and journals
carry reports on Niki de Saint Phalle's work.
1962
In February Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely travel to California and
visit Simon Rodilla's Watts Tower near Los Angeles. In March Jean Tinguely exhibits
at the Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles. With the help of Niki de Saint
Phalle he organises a 'happening', Study for and End of the World Number
2 in the Nevada Desert. Niki de Saint Phalle stages her first two 'shootings'
in the United States: the first is held at Virginia Dwan's beach house at Malibu,
the second assisted by Ed Kienholz, in the hills overlooking Malibu. Niki de
Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely travel to Mexico. In May, Niki de Saint Phalle,
Jean Tinguely and several other artists take part in Kenneth Koch's play, The
Construction of Boston. On stage at the Maidman Playhouse, New York, is her
'shooting sculpture', Venus de Milo. Following her return to Europe she exhibits
ten works at a one-woman exhibition at Paris's Galerie Rive Droite. Among the
visitors is Alexander Iolas, who invites Niki de Saint Phalle to exhibit in
New York the following October. He supports her financially for many years and
organises numerous exhibitions for her, even though few of the exhibits are
sold. It is Iolas who introduces her to the Surrealist painters, Victor Brauner,
Max Ernst and Rene Magritte. Yves Klein dies suddenly in June. In August Niki
de Saint Phalle takes part in DYLABY (Dynamic Labyrinth), a large-scale installation
at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in which Robert Rauschenberg, Martial
Raysse, Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt are also involved.
In October Niki de Saint Phalle opens her first one-woman exhibition in New
York at the Alexander Iolas Gallery. In addition to ten other works, she exhibits
her Homage to Le Facteur Cheval, a shooting gallery in which members of the
public are invited to fire at the complex structure.
1963
In May Virginia Dwan organizes a shooting event in Los Angeles at which Niki
de Saint Phalle shoots at her monumental sculpture, King Kong. From now
on Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely live at a former auberge, the 'Auberge
au cheval blanc' at Soisy-sur-Ecole near Essonne. She confronts the various
roles of women in society, producing a series of sculptures depicting women
in childbirth, devouring mothers, witches and whores.
1964
At her first one-woman exhibition at London's Hanover Gallery she exhibits brides,
woollen heads and dragons. In October Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely
begin working at New York's Chelsea Hotel, which at that time was a well-known
meeting-place for artists.
1965
Niki de Saint Phalle spends the summer at The Hamptons, Long Island, where she
creates her first Nanas from wool, cotton thread, papier mache and wire netting.
The following September she shows her Nanas at a one-woman exhibition at Alexander
Iolas's Paris gallery. At Iolas's suggestion, Niki de Saint Phalle begins making
silk-screen prints.
1966
In collaboration with Martial Rayasse and Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle
designs the scenery and costumes for Roland Petit's ballet, Eloge de la folie,
performed in March at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris. In june, Niki
de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt are invited by Pontus Hulten
to install a sculpture in the large entrance hall of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
They decide to create a monumental reclining Nana, 28 metres long, 9 meters
wide and 6 meters high. It is called Hon (the swedish pronoun, 'she').
While working in Stockholm, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguelymeet the young
Swiss artist, Rico Weber. He works on Hon with them and remains their assistant
and colleague for ten years.
In October, Niki de Saint Phalle designs the sets and costumes for Aristophanes's
Lysistrata in a production by Rainer von Diez at the Staatstheater in Kassel.
1967
Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely work on Le paradis fantastique,
a commission from the French government for the French Pavilion at Expo '67
in Montreal. The commission consists of nine painted sculptures by Niki de Saint
Phalle and six black kinetic machines by Jean Tinguely. They are subsequently
shown at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and, for a year, in Central
Park, New York. They are now on permanent exhibition in Stockholm, close to
the Moderna Museet. In August, Niki de Saint Phalle's first retrospective is
held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, under the title Les Nanas au pouvoi.
For this exhibition she creates her first Nana Dream House and her first
Nana Fountain and plans her first Nana town. The new exhibits are made
of polyester, a material in which she has only recently started to work.
1968
In June, Niki de Saint Phalle's first play, ICH (All About ME), is performed
at the Staatstheater in Kassel. Her co-author is the director, Rainer von Diez.
She herself designs the sets and costumes. In October, Niki de Saint Phalle
exhibits her eighteen-part wall relief, Last Night I Had a Dream, at the Galerie
Alexandre Iolas in Paris. Niki de Saint Phalle designs inflatable Nanas, which
are marketed in New York. Towards the end of the year she suffers serious breathing
difficulties, caused by inhaling polyester fumes and dust.
1969
Following her return from a visit to India, Niki de Saint Phalle begins work
on her first architectural project, three houses in the South of France for
Rainer von Diez. The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York acquires the
sculpture, Black Venus, and exhibits it at its April exhibition, Contemporary
American Sculpture, Selection 2. Niki de Saint Phalle begins work on La
tete (Le Cyclope), a collaborative project in Fontainebleau forest, initiated
by Jean Tinguely and involving a large number of artists.
1970
A festival is held in Milan to mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of
the Nouveaux Realistes. At the opening Ceremony, Niki de Saint Phalle shoots
at an altar assemblage. A series of seventeen serigraphs is published in Paris
under the title Nana Power. Niki de Saint Phalle visits Egypt for the
first time in the company of Jean Tinguely.
1971
On 13 July, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely are married in Soisy. They
visit Morocco. Their granddaughter Bloum is born on the island of Bali: she
is the daughter of Laura and Laurent Condominas. Niki de Saint Phalle designs
her first jewelry. At the end of the year she begins work on Golem, an
architectural project for children in Jerusalem's Rabinovitch Park.
1972
From now on Niki de Saint Phalle works with the polyester manufacturer Haligon
in order to produce large-scale sculptures and editions. In July she rents the
Chateau de Mons near Grasse in the South of France. She begins shooting the
first version of Daddy, produced in association with Peter Whitehead
and shown at London's Hammer Cinema the following November. Niki de Saint Phalle
visits Greece.
1973
In January, Niki de Saint Phalle works on a revised version of Daddy
in Soisy and New York, again with Mia Martin, Clarice Rivers and Rainer von
Diez. The world premiere of the televised version is shown in April as part
of the 11th New York Film Festival at the Lincoln Center. Niki de Saint Phalle
designs a swimming pool for Georges Plouvier in Saint-Tropez. In the Belgian
town of Knokke-le-Zoute she builds The Dragon, a fully equipped playhouse for
the children of Fabienne and Roger Nellens.
1974
Niki de Saint Phalle installs three gigantic Nanas in the city of Hanover. The
Galerie Alexandre Iolas in Paris mounts an exhibition of her architectural projects.
She suffers an abscess on her lung, caused by years of working with polyester.
After a period in hospital she travels to Saint Moritz to convalesce and it
is here that she meets Marella Caracciolo, an old friend from New York. Niki
de Saint Phalle tells her of her dream of designing a sculpture park and Marella
Caracciolo's brothers offer her land in Tuscany on which to realise her dream.
1975
Niki de Saint Phalle writes the screenplay for the film, Un reve plus long
que la nuit. Many of her artist friends are involved in shooting the film.
She designs several pieces of furniture for the sets.
1976
Niki de Saint Phalle spends the entire year in the Swiss mountains, planning
her sculpture park.
1977
Together with Constantin Mulgrave, Niki de Saint Phalle designs the sets for
the film, The Travelling Companion, which is based on a fairy story by
Hans Christian Andersen. She visits Mexico and New Mexico. Ricardo Menon becomes
her assistant, continuing to work with her for the next ten years.
1978
Niki de Saint Phalle begins laying out her Giardino dei Tarocchi on the
estates of Carlo and Nicola Caracciolo at Garavicchio in Tuscany. Her designs,
which are based on tarotcards, are later used as models for monumental sculptures.
1979
Niki de Saint Phalle spends most of her time in Tuscany, laying the foundations
for her Tarot Garden. She invents new sculptures, which she calls Skinnies.
In March she holds her first exhibition in Japan at Tokyo's Watari Gallery.
Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer of New York hold an exhibition of the models and photographs
for her architectural projects. The exhibition, entitled, Monumental Projects,
tours the United States.
1980
In April, Niki de Saint Phalle begins work on the first sculptures for her Tarot
Garden, The Magician and The High Priestess. In Ulm her sculpture,
Le poete et sa muse, is unveiled on the university campus. The installation
coincides with an exhibition of her graphic work, which lasts from May until
July. From July to September the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris devotes a
retrospective exhibition to her. Yoko Masuda organizes the first exhibition
at Space Niki de Saint Phalle in Tokyo.
The first edition of furniture by Niki de Saint Phalle is put into production.
1981
Niki de Saint Phalle rents a cottage in the vicinity of her Tarot Garden. She
hires assistants from the surrounding farms to help her with her project. Jean
Tinguely and his All Star Swiss Team of Sepp Imhof and Rico Weber take on the
task of welding the tarot sculptures. In the spring she paints the exterior
of a new twin-engine airplane, the Piper aerostar 602 P, for the Peter
Stuyvesant Foundation in Amsterdam.
1982
An American firm invites Niki de Saint Phalle to create a new perfume. She uses
the proceeds to finance her Tarot Garden. Jean Tinguely receives a commission
from the City of Paris to design a fountain for the Centre Georges Pompidou
and asks Niki de Saint Phalle to assist him, since he wants to combine his machines
with brightly colored sculptures. The galleries of Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer in
New York and Gimpel Fils in London show Niki de Saint Phalle's Skinnies. Work
on the Tarot Garden progresses. The Dutch artist Doc Winsen takes over Jean
Tinguely's role and works on the steel construction of the sculptures. By the
end of the year they are in position to begin applying cement.
Niki de Saint Phalle suffers her first attack of rheumatoid arthritis. The attacks
continue for a period of years.
1983
The Stuart Foundation commissions a sculpture, Sun God, for the
campus of the University of California at San Diego. Niki de Saint Phalle moves
into The Empress in the grounds of her Tarot Garden. The building is
designed in the shape of a sphinx. She decides to use ceramics in addition to
mirrors and glass for the sculptures. Ricardo Menon discovers Venera Finochiaro,
who produces all their ceramics from now on.
1984
Niki de Saint Phalle works full-time on her Tarot Garden.
1985
The buildings The Magician, The Tower, The Empress and The High Priestess
are completed. Jean Tinguely constructs a machine for The Tower of Babel.
1986
Niki de Saint Phalle spends most of the year at Garavicchio, where more sculptures
are installed in her Tarot Garden. Together with Professor Silvio Barandun she
writes and illustrates a book, AIDS: You Can't Catch It Holding Hands,
which is later published and translated into five different languages. Ricardo
Menon returns to Paris to attend drama school. He introduces Niki de Saint Phalle
to Marcelo Zitelli, who becomes her assistant. She works on a series of polyester
vases in the shape of animals.
1987
In March, the Kunsthaller der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich holds a major exhibition
of Niki de Saint Phalle's work, Niki de Saint Phalle - Bilder - Figuren -
Phantastische Gœrten. Her first retrospective in America is held at the
Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts in Roslyn, Long Island, under the title, Fantastic
Visions: Works by Niki de Saint Phalle
1988
Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely receive a commission from President Mitterand
to design a fountain for Chateau-Chinon, where he had been mayor for many years.
Mitterrand himself unveils the fountain, in front of the town hall, in March.
Helen Schneider commissions a fountain for the Schneider Children's Hospital
on Long Island. Niki de Saint Phalle designs a snake tree 5.50 meters in height.
1989
Niki de Saint Phalle has a twin exhibition in the JGM. Galerie and the Galerie
de France under the title Oeuvres des annees 80. She works in bronze
for the first time and designs a series of Egyptian gods, which are intended
to be cast. Ricardo Menon dies of Aids. Together with her son, Philip Mathews,
she produces a cartoon film, which is based on her book, AIDS: You Can't
Catch It Holding Hands
1990
In June, Niki de Saint Phalle exhibits work from the 1960s at both the Galerie
de France and the JGM Galerie in Paris. The exhibition is titled Tirs...et
autres revolts 1961-64. In November she presents her film about Aids at
the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. To coincide with the presentation, the
museum mounts an exhibition of drawings for the film and for the revised version
of the book. Le sida: Tu ne l'attraperas pas is published by the Agence
française de lutte contre le sida and distributed to school children throughout
the whole of France.
1991
Niki de Saint Phalle works on an enlarged model in the scale 1:4 of her Temple
Ideal, an interdenominational church first planned in 1972. The building
will be 16 metres high and will be built in Nimes. Jean Tinguely dies in August.
Niki de Saint Phalle produces her first kinetic sculpture and calls it Meta-Tinguely.