Lot Essay
"What saved me during my adolescent years was my imaginary secret box. It was inlaid with enamel of the brightest colours. When I was alone I would open it up and all kind of extraordinary coloured fish, genies and wild sweet smelling flowers would come tumbling out. The box was my spiritual home. The beginning of a life of my own. In the box I put my soul..." (in a Letter to Pontus Hulten published in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn 1992, p. 150).
With the commencement of the Nana series in 1965 it appears that Niki de Saint-Phalle had finally found the confidence to publicly let the lid off her Panadora's box. Inspired by a drawing by Larry Rivers of his pregnant wife, Clarice, the Nanas are created intuitively and with the credo of total freedom. Having previously worked on her "bridal" series aimed at enabling her to confront the painful contradictions of her past, de Saint-Phalle now felt the psychological liberty to create a hymn not only to herself but to all women. "With the Nanas I would show everything. My heart, my emotions, green, red, yellow, blue, violet, hate, love, fear." (Quoted in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn 1992, p. 186). This was an apotheosis of womankind in all her aspects.
It is the exaltation of the joy of life which nevertheless seems to feed the Nanas. Happiness and freedom radiates from them. Dancing bare-foot in the grass, the present Nana is a vibrant creature enobled with power and abounding self-confidence. De Saint-Phalle wrote, "I love roundness.. the curves, the undulation; I do not like right-angles, they scare me. The right angle is a killer. I love imperfection. Perfection is cold. Imperfection gives life. I love life." (Quoted in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1980 p. 48).
This joyously huge figure, happy in her largeness and brought alive by the dazzling sunshine-yellow of her flesh, represents the return of the Great Mother. She cannot help but make you rejoice in her happiness. "I wanted to invent a new mother," wrote de Saint-Phalle, "a mother goddess, and in these forms be reborn." (Quoted in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn 1992 p. 175).
With the commencement of the Nana series in 1965 it appears that Niki de Saint-Phalle had finally found the confidence to publicly let the lid off her Panadora's box. Inspired by a drawing by Larry Rivers of his pregnant wife, Clarice, the Nanas are created intuitively and with the credo of total freedom. Having previously worked on her "bridal" series aimed at enabling her to confront the painful contradictions of her past, de Saint-Phalle now felt the psychological liberty to create a hymn not only to herself but to all women. "With the Nanas I would show everything. My heart, my emotions, green, red, yellow, blue, violet, hate, love, fear." (Quoted in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn 1992, p. 186). This was an apotheosis of womankind in all her aspects.
It is the exaltation of the joy of life which nevertheless seems to feed the Nanas. Happiness and freedom radiates from them. Dancing bare-foot in the grass, the present Nana is a vibrant creature enobled with power and abounding self-confidence. De Saint-Phalle wrote, "I love roundness.. the curves, the undulation; I do not like right-angles, they scare me. The right angle is a killer. I love imperfection. Perfection is cold. Imperfection gives life. I love life." (Quoted in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1980 p. 48).
This joyously huge figure, happy in her largeness and brought alive by the dazzling sunshine-yellow of her flesh, represents the return of the Great Mother. She cannot help but make you rejoice in her happiness. "I wanted to invent a new mother," wrote de Saint-Phalle, "a mother goddess, and in these forms be reborn." (Quoted in Niki de Saint-Phalle, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn 1992 p. 175).