Niki de Saint Phalle Outside – In
Niki de Saint Phalle is primarily known for her brightly coloured Nana figures. The Outside-In exhibition at SCHUNCK took visitors on a trip through the early Nanas, brides and monsters, shooting-paintings, altars, films and assemblages, and ended with the mosaic self-portrait dating from 1958/59.
A special section of the exhibition was formed by the HON project which SCHUNCK organised in conjunction with VIA2018. Inspired by the spectacular 28-meter-tall “primordial mother” sculpture which Niki de Saint Phalle created in Stockholm in 1966, pupils from seven secondary schools in the Euregion, as part of a competition, made their own designs for a colourful monumental sculpture. The winning design was later reproduced to scale in one of the squares in the centre of Heerlen.
Diversity
When Niki de Saint Phalle died in San Diego (California) in 2002, she left a huge and diverse oeuvre behind. Strangely enough, in 2011, ten years after her death, many preconceptions about her work still existed. These preconceptions were dominated first and foremost by the famous, brightly coloured Nana figures. In the Niki de Saint Phalle ‘Outside – In’ exhibition, SCHUNCK therefore aimed to refocus attention on the diversity of De Saint Phalle’s intriguing body of work in all its different facets, by way of an ‘inside-out’ approach. The exhibition offered the visitor a voyage of adventure back in time, whose destination was her mysterious self-portrait from 1958, singled out on account of its remarkable contemporary quality, as if it had been made today.
Gwendolyn, 1966-90, coll. NCAF, coll. NCAF
On arrival at the Glaspaleis, the facade and the store window provided a feast for the eyes. The stereotypical Niki idiom was to be found everywhere: on banners, in bright-looking lettering and in the sculptures which were installed in the foyer, as well as the store window: Les Trois Graces, de Fontaine aux Nanas and the early Gwendolyn work. In the grand staircase, three blow-ups of iconic images from Niki’s work were installed, and in the exhibition space on level +1 there was a general introduction to her life and work.
The museum gallery paid attention first and foremost to the Nanas. The joie de vivre of the Nanas symbolises the liberated woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to express it. As such, the Nanas, such as Gwendolyn and Les Trois Graces, are in perfect keeping with the feminist thinking of the sixties and seventies when they were created. In addition to the Nanas, her graphic work, full of mythical creatures, monsters and snakes, also featured widely in the exhibition – just like her work for film and theatre.