Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life
Until 6 September at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens
Structures for Life at MoMA PS1 represents the first ever New York museum show for
The first solo museum show in New York devoted to the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle features art and ephemera from the wildly prolific artist, who worked across an array of mediums but is perhaps best known for her large, ebullient sculptures of women. In addition to sculptures, paintings, lithographs and jewellery, the real treat of the exhibition are the maquettes, photographs, and process videos from some of Saint Phalle’s most ambitious public projects, including playgrounds in Belgium and Jerusalem and a fountain in Paris. Among them are videos, photographs, drawings, models and other ephemera documenting the construction of Tarot Garden, Saint Phalle’s magnum opus which takes the form of a massive architectural park and sculpture garden outside of Rome, which the artist worked on from the 1970s until her death in 2002. With more than 200 works in the show, the takeaway may be Saint Phalle’s ability to use a playful touch to create a fiercely smart feminist body of work that poses hard questions but never loses sight of joy.