"Tir" from Édition MAT 64
Edition MAT collection 1964. Signed Niki de Saint Phalle and numbered 91/100 on label verso. Measurements including frame 73 x 55 cm.
Den schweiziske konstnären Daniel Spoerri, medlem av konstnärsgruppen Nouveau Réaliste, grundade år 1959 Edition MAT (Multiplication d’Art Transformable), ett banbrytande förlag. Man gav ut konstverk i upplagor om 100, men i själva verket kan varje objekt räknas som unikt på något sätt. Många var handgjorda, kinetiska eller transformerbara på något sätt. Tanken var att ge ut verk som ”optically, electrically, or through the physical intervention of the spectator, and presenting an infinite number of variations or aspects.” Genom att sälja dessa multiplar till mer modesta priser än originalverk, kunde man göra konst av några av 1900-talets viktigaste konstnärer (Duchamp, Man Ray, Christo, Jean Tingely och Niki de Saint Phalle) mer tillgänglig för en bredare publik.
Niki de Saint Phalle var redan känd för sina ”shooting pictures” i början av 1960-talet. Hon placerade en plastpåse med färg i en egenhändigt tillverkad träram, som sedan fylldes med gips. Därefter sköt hon hål på plastpåsen med en pistol så att färgen rann ut.
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.