Niki de Saint Phalle is one of the most influential and versatile artists of the 20th century. Her work encompasses painting, sculpture, architecture and performance art.
She came to the attention of the post-war avant-garde in particular through her "Shooting Paintings" in the early 1960s. These works consisted of assemblages that were filled with bags of paint and then shot at, causing the colours to explode across the canvas. These performances were a radical departure from traditional painting methods and commented on the topics of violence, creativity and destruction. They positioned de Saint Phalle as an avant-garde artist and member of the "Nouveaux Réalistes".
De Saint Phalle became known to the public through her "Nanas", colourful, voluptuous female figures created from the 1960s onwards. These sculptures celebrated femininity in all its forms and became symbols of the women's movement. The "Nanas" broke with traditional representations of the female body and created a new image of women that was characterised by joie de vivre, strength and vitality. Niki de Saint Phalle's works have had a lasting impact on feminist art history in terms of female self-determination and equal rights.
The present work, "Chaise", a painted wooden sculpture in the shape of a chair, also features de Saint-Phalle's characteristic vocabulary of colour and form, which she developed in her "Nanas".
Although the chair is recognisable as such, its forms are also reminiscent of those of the female body and, together with the colourful painting, the typical ultramarine blue and gold, form a narrative of their own. The motifs on the chair show curved lines, floral and anthropomorphic patterns, flowers, snakes, plants, animals and body parts, all of which interact with each other to create a dynamic sense of movement. These paintings not only have an aesthetic appeal, but also reveal de Saint-Phalle's own symbolism, linking her works together and uniting themes such as femininity, nature and spirituality.
