Niki de Saint Phalle
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"Anubis"
Stamped signature on metal plate. Edition 7/8. Executed in 1990. Produced by Resines d'Art R. Haligon. Painted polyester, height 44 cm.
Provenance
Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm.
Ingemar Dahlberg Collection.
Literature
Pontus Hulten, Niki de Saint-Phalle, "Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland", 19 June - 1 November, another example illustrated p. 273.
More information
“Niki de Saint Phalle loves myths. She invents them without preoccupying herself with art history or popular traditions, without having studied the civilizations that invented the symbols to try and understand their enigmas. She doesn’t depend on knowledge but relies on her independence. All her life, Niki de Saint Phalle has been vigilant to preserve what is her strength: her freedom. […] The originality of her work comes directly from her personality. This simplicity, this lack of sophistication, which is implied by her work, is in reality a true sophistication, not at all superficial and conventional, but profoundly original.” -Pontus Hultén
Niki de Saint Phalle blev genom sitt förhållande med Jean Tinguely i början av 1960-talet medlem i den konstnärliga gruppen Nouveaux Réalistes med kopplingar både till dadaism och popkonsten. I Sverige är hon mest känd för sina stora och färgrika figurer, ”Nanor”, och skulpturgruppen ”Paradiset" utanför Moderna museet i Stockholm.
Den för auktionen aktuella skulpturen föreställer guden Anubis som i egyptisk mytologi var son till Osiris och Neftys. Anubis är den viktigaste dödsguden, dödsrikets väktare och mumifieringens gud. Han avbildades oftast med schakalhuvud och människokropp, ibland som en hel schakal, och återfinns i många egyptiska gravar. Egyptisk mytologi är återkommande teman i Nikis oeuvre. Hon har bland annat även skapat skulpturer föreställande Thoëris, flodhästgudinnan och fågelguden Horus. Alla tre med de klara färgerna och lekfulla uttrycket som är så typiskt för Niki de Saint Phalle.
Artist
Niki De Saint Phalle (1930-2002) was a self-taught French painter, sculptor, and film producer. She moved to Mallorca in 1955, and during a visit to Barcelona and Madrid, came in contact with Anotnio Gaudi’s art. This had a huge impact on her own art making and opened unforeseen possibilities for her development as an artist. In particular, it was Gaudi’s “Park Guell” which convinced her to create her own monumental sculpture park, which she bogh the land for in 1979 in Tuscany. The garden “Giardino dei Tarocchi” stood finished in 1998 and displays sculptures of icons drawn from the Tarot cad deck.
For a period, Saint Phalle explored various roles of women by creating life-sized doll-like models. They were normally dressed in white and made of papier maché. They were called Nanas and were presented in Paris in 1965. In the following year, Saint Phalle collaborated with her colleagues Jan Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for a project at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, where they created the well-known sculpture exhibition “Her – A Cathedral”. This giant Nana sculpture had an entrance through its legs where one could walk inside of her. “She” awake a grand reaction across the globe. She eventually married Jean Tinguely in 1971.