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Come out and play
(by Kara Krekeler - May 14, 2008)
Most art exhibits fall strictly into the “look but don’t touch” category. But a new exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden throws that rule out the window.
Niki, a traveling exhibit of 40 colorful sculptures by pop artist Niki de Saint Phalle, features several pieces that are meant to be touched or even climbed. A few of the mosaic pieces were created specifically for children — and game adults — to crawl all over.
“‘Nikigator’ was built as a playground for children,” said Marcelo Zitelli, a former collaborator of Saint Phalle’s and a trustee for the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, which promotes the artist’s work worldwide. “Niki wanted children to have a close relationship with her sculptures.”
Born in France in 1930 and raised in New York City, Saint Phalle worked as a model — appearing in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and on the cover of Life magazine — before achieving fame for her colorful painted and mosaic artwork in the 1960s. After more than 40 years on the international art scene, Saint Phalle died in 2002, not long after setting up the foundation that bears her name.
She is best known, however, for her Nanas, sculptures of robust, joyful women dancing in a celebration of life. “Nana” is a French term similar to “chick” or “babe” in the U.S.
“She made the Nanas in the 1970s, and it was shocking for the public in Europe. She was talking about the role of women in society,” Zitelli said, adding that each sculpture took at least three months to create from start to finish. Many of the Nanas are on display at the Botanical Garden.
On display with the Nanas are sculptures representing several other themes Saint Phalle explored during her lifetime, including the series Black Heroes, which consists of larger-than-life sculptures of African-American musicians and sports stars; Animals, a series including “Nikigator” and other child-friendly large animal sculptures; and a series of sculptures representing various spiritual and religious traditions.
This final category includes the exhibit’s largest piece, “La Cabeza,” a six-ton hollow skull that proved difficult to transport from the exhibit’s previous location in Chicago. Lisa Brandon, a spokeswoman for the Botanical Garden said that while most of the sculptures in the show arrived packed together in crates on trucks, the skull received its own flatbed tractor-trailer. The piece was too heavy to travel across the Poplar Street Bridge downtown, and so had to travel around the metropolitan area and come into the Garden from the west, Brandon said.
Most of the sculptures in the exhibit have been borrowed from private collectors and institutions from locations across the country, in Europe and in Japan. Not all had to travel so far, however; one, a large sculpture of a cat, simply made its way across town from Laumeier Sculpture Park in Sunset Hills. Zitelli said that while the foundation has an extensive collection of Saint Phalle’s works, it has only a few outdoor sculptures to its name; those that do belong to the foundation are included in the traveling exhibit, however.
Zitelli said that Saint Phalle would be proud to have her work displayed in botanical gardens across the country. “It was very important to her to have her sculptures in natural places,” he said. “She was very interested in gardens. Her masterwork is the Tarot Garden in Italy. She was working on that for 25 years.”
Niki will remain on display through Oct. 31, and much like it did during the Dale Chihuly glass exhibit of 2006, the Garden will remain open until 9 p.m. each Thursday night through September for “Niki Nights.” The Doris I. Schnuck Children’s Garden will also remain open late those nights for no additional charge. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.mobot.org or call 577-9400.
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