Niki de Saint Phalle
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'Mini Nana Acrobate'.
Signed Niki de Saint Phalle. Pencil, crayon and acrylic on resin. Height 18.3 cm, width 18 cm, and depth 9 cm. A certificate of authenticity executed by Niki Charitable Art Foundation is included with the lot.
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The 1966 exhibition 'SHE-a Cathedral' at Moderna Museet in Stockholm showcased the ultimate Nana, a monumental reclining figure that Saint Phalle created with Jean Tinguely and P O Ultvedt. SHE was a symbol of the independent Nana and was a cathedral that housed an entire exhibition hall. Saint Phalle was responsible for the exterior and the other two for the interior. Through the womb of this giant woman, over 20 meters tall, the audience entered a fantastic world with a cinema, a bar, a slide and various moving sculptures.
Today, the sculpture group Paradise, with the monumental Nanas, stands outside Moderna Museet. The work was created for the World Exhibition in Montreal and then donated to the museum in Stockholm.
Niki de Saint Phalle's Nana sculptures first appeared in 1964 after she was inspired by her pregnant friend Clarice Rivers. Initially made from yarn, papier-mâché and wire, Saint Phalle later made them in polyester. They are curvaceous, colorful female figures that are happy, liberated, godlike women, foreshadowing a new matriarchal era. Saint Phalle also executed several Nanas painted in black and white as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and as an expression of the artist's belief that all women are goddesses, regardless of color.