Niki de Saint Phalle - Untitled, © Niki Charitable Art Foundation. All rights reserved / ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris
Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, Lifetime of Art Together and Apart
Location: Second Floor Feature Gallery Artwork Dates: 1966-1991The second floor gallery celebrates the work of two interconnected artists in the Bechtler collection. Few partnerships in the world of art yielded so much inspired mutual reinforcement and yet such disparate outcomes than the artistic relationship between Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely. The artists, who eventually married, worked in a variety of media, had dramatically different backgrounds and were almost a generation apart in age.
Their many shared travels and numerous mutual friendships deepened their artistic and emotional bonds despite the remarkable difference in their aesthetic approaches. Tinguely’s works are muscular and mechanical, animated by powers implied and real. His sculptures and paintings exhibit a persistent dynamism and energy that fundamentally informs the viewer’s relationship with his work. De Saint Phalle’s approach is equally cerebral and animated but her pieces are far gentler as a result of their playful voluptuousness, often brilliant colors and sense of fecundity. Both artists produced works of great seriousness leavened by a periodic and convincing sense of wonder and whimsy.
Niki de Saint Phalle
Vive Moi, 1968
55 in. x 58 in. x 21 1/8 in., Polyester, fiberglass and acrylic paint
© Niki Charitable Art Foundation. All rights reserved / ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris
Jean Tinguely
Santana, 1966
25 in. x 28 in. x 11 1/2 in., Metal, wood and electric motor painted black
© 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Niki de Saint Phalle
Untitled, 1970
37 in. x 56 in. x 41/2 in., Polyester, fiberglass and acrylic paint
© Niki Charitable Art Foundation. All rights reserved / ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris
FIREBIRD
A delightful work of public art greets visitors on the museum’s plaza. The lyrical whimsy of Niki de Saint Phalle’s Firebird provides a contrast to the classical sobriety of Mario Botta’s museum architecture. The sculpture monumental in scale, three times the average human height, but with its mirrors and arch, gives the viewer a closer connection to the soaring height of the column and cantilevered fourth floor of the museum building.