Online Talk: Niki de St. Phalle: The glory of women, feminism and Art [] Béa Aaronson PhD

Niki de St Phalle (1930-2002) is one of the most renowned artists from the mid-twentieth century. This Paris-born American painter, sculptor, collagist, model, performance artist, author, succeeded to extol the beauty and power of women using the wounds of her own life as humus for her creative input.

Molested by her father as a child, much of her early work from the Sixties is indeed attempting to purge the anger, pain, sadness and sense of betrayal this caused her.

Her SHOOTING PAINTINGS are violent, happenings during which St Phalle shot with a rifle at her own paintings, which were exploding with red or black paint. They expressed her outrage against all injustice.

In her own words:

“In 1961 I shot at Papa, at all men, at important men, fat men, men, my brother, society, the church, the convent, school, my family, my mother….I was shooting at myself, society with its injustices. I was shooting at my own violence and the violence of the times.”

After the “Shooting paintings” came a period when she explored the various roles of woman. She made life size dolls of women, such as brides and mothers giving birth.

All of her famous NANAS (French slang for “saucy girl” or “broad”) explored the ancient “earth mother” feminine deities, while also celebrating modern feminism’s efforts to reconsider and revalue woman’s body. The Nanas became a symbol of female strength and self-confidence. “At any rate, they were a statement of the glory of women.”

St Phalle then devoted herself to fight society’s expectations of women to be a wife and mother. Her feminist works were an ongoing commentary on the limitations imposed on women when forced to uptake the role of wife and mother by conditioning rather than choice. Her prolific career was always deeply embedded with socio-political issues.

Also during the 1960s, she designed decors and costumes for two theatrical productions: a ballet by Roland Petit, and most importantly an adaptation of the Aristophanes play “Lysistrata,” a satirical play where women make love to their warrior husbands in order to stop them from fighting. AH! MAKE LOVE NOT WAR!

Come and meet this truly “extra-ordinary” woman. Discover or get re-acquainted with her life and art. Wander through her HON gigantic hollow woman, her magic Tarot Garden in Italy, her kinetic Stravinsky Fountain in Paris. You will feel empowered!