All about the exhibition event dedicated to Niki de Saint-Phalle, in Toulouse
By Gabriel Kenedi
Published on
It is certainly the event exhibition of the new school year in Toulouse ! The Musée des Abattoirs is organizing a unique exhibition dedicated to Nikki from Saint Phallewhich will be held from October 7, 2022 to March 5, 2023.
200 works brought together at the Abattoirs
This exhibition dedicated to the famous Franco-American artist (1930-2002), best known for her monumental works and her famous Babesfocuses on the artist’s 1980s and 1990s and brings together nearly 200 works as well as photographs and archives.
“There are monumental works and others are just a few centimeters long! The goal was not to redo the exhibition at the Grand Palais (which took place in 2014, editor’s note), which changed many people’s view of the art of Niki de Saint-Phalle. The idea was to show all the facets of Niki de Saint-Phalle and go beyond the image of the Nanas», Explains Annabelle Ténèze, the director of the Musée des Abattoirs. Who adds: “Often, we don’t look much at the second part of a women’s career. When you get older, when you are a visual artist, an actress, you are looked at less. Or, you are also much more liberated! Our idea is therefore to show the artist, the company manager, the perfume designer, the site manager, the committed woman”.
The exhibition, which occupies the entire ground floor and basement of the museum, takes as its starting point the year 1978, when Niki de Saint Phalle launched the Tarot Garden and its perfume, and ends in 2002 with the death of the artist.
Nanas but not only, far from it!
As the director of Les Abattoirs herself admits, “there is a certain paradox in showing Niki de Saint-Phalle in a museum when it is the artist who has tried the most to have a direct relationship with visitors. She is the first female artist to create so many monumental works in the public space”.
In this rich exhibition, visitors will come across some of the artist’s monumental works in the main nave of the Abattoirs and on the museum forecourt: Babesof course or even an imposing Loch Ness Monster. But not only…
“The founding moment of this period in the life of Niki de Saint-Phalle was the creation of a garden of monumental sculptures in Italy (Le Jardin des Tarots, editor’s note), with the idea that to achieve it as well as possible , it must be financially independent. She then imagined a perfume which would be a great success and which would finance a third of the Jardin des Tarots”, underlines Annabelle Ténèze. Launched in 1982 in the presence of Andy Warhol, this bottle made of two intertwined snakess therefore makes it possible to partially finance this gigantic project, inspired in particular by Park Güell, in Barcelona.
The opportunity for the museum – and the visitor – to explore the artist’s relationship to animals, to the bestiary, and to return to the site of Niki de Saint-Phalle’s life, the creation of the Tarot Garden in Tuscany . Launched in 1979, this garden of monumental sculptures would not open until 20 years later.
AIDS, incest, Black Heroes…: a woman who multiplies the fights
The exhibition also retraces the committed woman that she was. Feminist and fierce defender of the oppressed, Niki multiplies the fights in the 80s and 90s.
“She is one of the first artists to become publicly involved in the fight against AIDS, directly with French agencies and doctors. People were dying around her and she then decided to get involved, to speak on television. It’s an unknown part of life! “. It thus publishes a book for young audiences, intervenes at Sidaction, produces works (posters, prevention books, pins, stamps, films, etc.) to raise awareness among a wide audience.
Taboo breaker, she publishes several autobiographical books and reveals herself in one of them the incest she suffered at the age of eleven. “I survived death, I needed to let the little girl in me finally speak. My text is the desperate cry of the little girl”, she wrote in “Mon Secret”, published in 1994. Moving excerpts to discover during this event exhibition.
The exhibition is also devoted to the American years of Niki de Saint-Phalle, the country of her youth. Sensitive to the Afro-American cause, she sculpted during this period the black heroes in order to pay homage to black personalities that she considers insufficiently recognized.
You can even sit on a work!
Another facet of Niki: from the 80s, she widened her range of artist’s furniture (armchairs, tables, mirrors, etc.), works to wear (scarves, jewelry, pins, etc.) and relaunched the production of Nanas inflatables. Criticized by some who accuse him of giving in to commercial art, Niki de Saint-Phalle tries, through the creation and distribution of objects, to spread art in everyone’s life, making it easily accessible. and usable on a daily basis.
In the room located in the basement of the museum, one last surprise awaits visitors: the discovery of two monumental creations in mosaic of mirrors. And in the space dedicated to young audiences, it is even exceptionally possible to sit (as respectfully as possible!) on one of the artist’s works, “The Snake Chair”. A unique opportunity!
“Niki de Saint-Phalle: the 1980s and 1990s, free art”
At the Slaughterhouse Museum
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nocturne, Thursday until 8 p.m. (nocturne only outside school holidays).
Full price: €9 / Half price: €7 or €6
More informations on the museum website
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