In 1960, Niki de Saint Phalle aimed a loaded shotgun at her own work and pulled the trigger. Encapsulated bags of paint under a layer of plaster exploded and made the works bleed like a human being. These ShootingPaintings (Tirs) were widely acknowledged, and Niki de Saint Phalle developed them into large-scale reliefs and altarpieces against the hypocrisy of the church and the omnipotence of the patriarchy.
Information to our visitors: Be advised that the film Daddy contains scenes of a sexual nature that some viewers may find disturbing and unsuitable for children.
With the exhibition SHE – a Cathedral in 1966, Niki de Saint Phalle became forever inseparable from the history of Moderna Museet. Her gigantic “Nana”, which lay on her back with legs apart, filled the entire exhibition space of the museum. Astonished visitors could walk around inside the Nana, and SHE figured in the media and was widely publicised, as pop chick, slut and goddess.
Niki de Saint Phalle
King-Kong, 1962
© Niki de Saint Phalle/BUS 2013
Throughout her career, Niki de Saint Phalle returned to the personal scars and traumas that had once made her choose the artist profession. In the film Daddy, and in the artist book The Devouring Mothers, she is portrayed as a child, trying to cope with the father who abused her. With the aid of imagination and mythology, Niki de Saint Phalle managed to keep her own inner demons at bay while combining intimately private and universal (and still urgent) issues of gender, power and powerlessness.
Curator: Joa Ljungberg
With support from
