Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Niki de Saint Phalle
Invitation au Musee, original museum poster

1993

About the Item

Niki de Saint Phalle Invitation au Musee, original museum poster, 1993 Silkscreen on wove paper 16 × 24 inches Unframed (not signed) original poster; not a later reprint This stunning, bright poster was created in 1993 for the Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition at the Musee d'Art Moderne a Paris at the Trocadero. Unframed and in excellent condition. Publisher Musee d'Art Modern, Paris Biography of Niki de Saint Phalle Childhood Niki de Saint Phalle was born in France in 1930 to an aristocratic Catholic family. She had an American mother, a French banker father, four siblings, and grew up bilingual in French and English. Her father lost his wealth during the Great Depression and the family moved to the US in 1933, where Saint Phalle attended Brearley School, a girls' school in New York City. Saint Phalle reported later in her life, in an autobiography titled Mon Secret (1994), that her father had sexually abused her from age 11. From an early age, Saint Phalle pushed boundaries in her artistic and personal life. Though she found Brearley School to be a formative experience, later claiming that it was there she became a feminist, she was expelled for painting the fig leaves covering the genitals of statues on the school's campus red. She then attended Oldfields School in Maryland, graduating in 1947. As a young woman, Saint Phalle also worked as a model, appearing on the front covers of Life Magazine and Vogue. When she was 18, Saint Phalle eloped with Henry Matthews, an author and childhood friend. While Matthews studied music at Harvard University, Saint Phalle began to explore painting, and gave birth to her daughter Laura in 1951, when she was 20 years old. Early Training and work In 1952, the Matthews and Saint Phalle moved to Paris, where he continued to study music and Saint Phalle studied theater. The couple traveled extensively in Europe, gaining exposure to art by the Old Masters. The following year, Saint Phalle was diagnosed with a "nervous breakdown" and hospitalized in a psychiatric facility. She was encouraged to paint as a form of therapy, and consequently gave up her theater studies in favor of becoming an artist. The couple moved to Mallorca off the coast of Spain, where their son Philip was born in 1955. During this time, Saint Phalle developed her imaginative, self-taught style of painting, experimenting with a variety of forms and materials. She also discovered the architecture of Antonio Gaudi, which had a strong influence on her work. Gaudi's Park Guell in Barcelona was instrumental in Saint Phalle's early conceptualization of the elaborate sculpture garden she would fulfill much later in her career. Mature Period At the end of the 1950s, Saint Phalle and her husband moved back to Paris. In 1960, however, the couple separated and Saint Phalle moved to a new apartment, established a studio, and met artist Jean Tinguely, with whom she would collaborate artistically. Within a year, they had moved in together and begun a romantic relationship. Saint Phalle became part of the Nouveau Réalisme movement along with Tinguely, Yves Klein, Arman and others. She was the only woman in the group. Her first solo exhibition in 1961 punctuated a dynamic period of Saint Phalle's early career, and she met a number of influential artists living in Paris at the time, such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, whose use of found objects was to have a strong influence on Saint Phalle's work. She was also friendly with Marcel Duchamp, who first introduced her and Tinguely to Salvador Dalí. The three artists traveled to Spain together to an event celebrating Dali's work, in which a life-sized bull sculpture was detonated with fireworks. In 1963, Tinguely and Saint Phalle moved to an old house just outside Paris, where she began to work on architectural projects as well as her renowned shooting paintings. In 1971, she designed her first building (a residence in the south of France), traveled to India and Egypt to study Eastern architecture, and married Tinguely. Her most famous and prolific series of works, the Nanas, were begun in the mid-1960s and inspired by a friend's pregnancy, her reflections on archetypal feminine forms, and the vexed positions that women occupy in modern, patriarchal societies. 'Nanas,' a French slang word roughly equivalent to 'broads,' is a title that encapsulates the theme of the everywoman as well as the casual denigration that closely accompanies the rhetorical grouping of women as a social category. In 1974, Saint Phalle suffered from a serious lung illness and was advised by her doctors to spend some time in Switzerland to recuperate. While she was there, she met childhood friend Marella Caracciolo Agnelli, who was then the wife of Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. Marella was a well-connected socialite with a penchant for collecting art, and Saint Phalle told her about her vision of creating an elaborate sculpture garden of Tarot symbology. Caracciolo Agnelli proposed an area of land in Tuscany as a site, and initiated the garden work that would define the next 20 years of Saint Phalle's artistic efforts. Late Period In 1978, the foundations were laid for the Tarot Garden, and Saint Phalle created the first sculptural models for it. Construction began on the first large-scale sculpture in 1980, and in 1982 Saint Phalle completed The Empress, a sculptural building designed in the shaped of a sphinx. This structure became her studio and home for the next decade. Saint Phalle was one of the first artists to get involved in AIDS outreach and prevention programs in the 1980s, designing prints to raise awareness about the disease. The 1980s were also the most prolific period in the Nanas series, and marked a time when her interests in the cultural and biological systems constructing femininity were their most intricately developed. Jean Tinguely died in Switzerland in 1991, and Saint Phalle began to make a series of kinetic sculptures, his chief sculptural medium, to honor his memory. In 1994, Saint Phalle moved away from Tuscany to live in La Jolla in California. She lived there until her death in 2002. The Legacy of Niki de Saint Phalle The Nouveau Realisme movement, and Niki de Saint Phalle's work in particular, had a significant effect on the development of conceptual art. Her works often combined performance and plastic art in new ways, blending and dismantling hierarchies between painting, sculpture, and performance in a way that would influence conceptual artists such as Joseph Beuys and Lawrence Weiner. She performed some of her Shooting Pictures for Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha and Larry Bell, and influenced their thinking toward developing new and hybrid forms rather than refining single medium-specificity. As a feminist, Saint Phalle's unique style championed the female body and female sexuality. Her work would inspire generations of women artists working with the problem and challenge of representing the female body (notably, Louise Bourgeois' ambiguous, supple fabric sculptures of female forms). Saint Phalle also left behind a significant legacy of public sculpture, both in her Tarot Garden in Tuscany and in other locations around the world. -The Art Story
  • Creator:
    Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002, French, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1993
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1745214257562
More From This SellerView All
  • Untitled, from the Album International 2 Portfolio
    By Lucienne Bloch
    Located in New York, NY
    Lucienne Bloch Untitled, from the Album International 2 Portfolio, 1977 Silkscreen on wove paper 11 1/2 × 11 inches Edition 1/50 Hand signed, number and dated on the front Unframed This is a rare Bloch silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil from the limited edition of only 50. Superb provenance as it is was acquired from the original Album International Portfolio, number 1 of 50. Text from the Colophon page reads as follows: Swiss born, living in California. Limited signed edition of 50 serigraphs by Lucienne Bloch Lucienne Bloch was the daughter of famous European music composer...
    Category

    1970s Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Clothes 2
    By Menashe Kadishman
    Located in New York, NY
    Menashe Kadishman Clothes 2, 1973 Silkscreen on wove paper Signed and numbered 31/70 on the front 23 1/4 × 32 1/2 inches Edition 31/70 Chris Prater of Kelpra Studio, Kentish Town, En...
    Category

    1970s Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • My Love We Wont - coveted, whimsical 1960s silkscreen by beloved female artist
    By Niki de Saint Phalle
    Located in New York, NY
    Niki de Saint Phalle My Love We Wont, 1968 Lithograph and silkscreen on wove paper Signed and numbered 51/75 in graphite pencil on the front Frame included: elegantly floated and framed in a museum quality white wood frame with UV plexiglass From the Brooklyn Museum, which has an edition of this work in its permanent collection: "Throughout her long and prolific career Niki de Saint Phalle, a former cover model for Life magazine and French Vogue, investigated feminine archetypes and women’s societal roles. Her Nanas, bold, sexy sculptures...
    Category

    1960s Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Screen, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Pencil

  • Note D
    By Grisha Bruskin
    Located in New York, NY
    Grisha Bruskin Note D, 1991 Color silkscreen on Somerset paper 34 × 27 inches Edition 74/75 Boldly signed and numbered on front in graphite pencil. Published by Marlborough Graphics Unframed From Russian-American Jewish artist Grisha Bruskin's "Notes" series. In Russia, Bruskin had been accused of creating “subversive” Soviet art and “Jewish propaganda". But he's said, “We have no prejudice here. Even Russians can feel something for art. Some Russians understand the Jewish paintings and some stupid Jewish people do not. It depends upon the person.” Below is an excerpt from a 1988 New York Times profile on Bruskin: “It is my intention to create two lines of mythology based on the mentality of socialism and Judaism,” he solemnly declares, while acknowledging the “difficulty of looking at Soviet art with Western criteria.” Bruskin’s paintings of Jewish characters are equally perplexing to some Soviets, though their meaning is not as evident because he has invented his own symbols. “In Egyptian or Assyrian art, there were symbolic equivalents of beliefs, but not in Judaism,” he says. “I was interested in creating them not at a secular level but at an artistic level.” In his Jewish-themed works, gnome-like characters may appear upside-down, carrying an angel, a menorah or a strange beast. Snippets of Hebrew text...
    Category

    1980s Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Do You Know...?, from the New York Collection for Stockholm portfolio (Signed/N)
    By Nam June Paik
    Located in New York, NY
    Nam June Paik Do You Know...?, from the New York Collection for Stockholm portfolio, 1973 Silkscreen on paper, in original portfolio sleeve Signed and dated '73 and numbered 36/300 i...
    Category

    1970s Modern Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Screen, Pencil

  • Rainbow Signed 1970s silkscreen & lithograph by pioneering female Fluxus artist
    By Mary Bauermeister
    Located in New York, NY
    Mary Bauermeister Rainbow, 1973 Lithograph and silkscreen on creamy white paper Hand signed, dated and numbered 56/250 by the artist on the front 19 x 25.5 inches Unframed This work is on the permanent collection of various institutions like: Rice University, Samuel Dorksy Museum of Art, Rutgers Zimmerli Museum and Wheaton College Massachusetts. While studying the fringe sciences the 1970s, Bauermeister created Rainbow (1973), a lithograph and silkscreen. She uses a creamy white background as the base. Two intersecting diagonal bands of color transcend across the page, and black cursive lettering dances over the surface serving as a mind map of interweaving ideas. Through the central band, Bauermeister shifts through the color spectrum; she begins with red and finishes with violet. Inspired by music, she uses strokes of color that are rhythmically smeared across the lithograph. The surface lettering, a kind of visual poetry, explores her interest in human emotion and science. The viewer can see Bauermeister’s thoughts as they flow into one another through the use of words such as bliss, love, and healing. Bauermeister also includes a repetition of words such as cancer, sickness, and cure. The word cancer emerges from a cell-like shape. A careful study of the words shows that they may seem dark in nature; however, she juxtaposes these words against the cheerful title and colors. Perhaps the rainbow symbolizes a new hope, an inspiration for an optimistic future. -Courtesy to the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art About Mary Bauermeister: A multidisciplinary artist known for her intricate and enigmatic assemblages, Mary Bauermeister (1934-2023) continues to defy categorization with layered works in a range of media. A precursory figure of the Fluxus movement—her studio was the meeting point for a number of defining artists of the avant-garde—her work plays an integral role in the discussion of art, both European and American, that emerged from the 1960s. Her reliefs and sculptures, which have incorporated drawing, text, found objects, natural materials and fabric, reference a plethora of concepts: from natural phenomena and astronomy to mathematics and language, as well as her own “spiritual-metaphysical experiences.” Maturing amidst the currents of Minimalism and Pop Art, Bauermeister’s art has resisted labels due to the singular expression of her interests and concerns, among them the simultaneous transience and permanence of the natural world with experimentations in transparency and magnification, multiplication and variation, structure and order, chance and ephemerality, introversion and extroversion. Her three-dimensional receptacles of thoughts, ideas, and notes contain visual, conceptual, and philosophical paradoxes that challenge perceptions and that offer literal and metaphorical windows into which one can glimpse the inner workings of the artist’s mind. - Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld...
    Category

    1970s Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Lithograph, Screen, Mixed Media, Pencil, Graphite

You May Also Like
  • "Sacrifice Economy" Silkscreen 39" x 27.5" inch by Patricio Gonzalez
    By Patricio Gonzalez
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "Sacrifice Economy" Silkscreen 39" x 27.5" inch by Patricio Gonzalez Silkscreen Not framed From "Looking for Happiness" series LOOKING FOR HAPPI...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • Mother and Child
    By Romare Bearden
    Located in New York, NY
    A very good impression of this color screenprint. Signed and numbered 200/15 in pencil by Bearden. Catalogue reference: Gelburd/Rosenberg GG#59
    Category

    1970s Modern Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Color, Screen

  • Propagation-L, mid century figurative abstract screenprint, 20th century artist
    By Takesada Matsutani
    Located in Beachwood, OH
    Takesada Matsutani (Japanese, b. 1937) Propagation-L, 1971 Screenprint in colors Edition 51/75 28 x 27 inches 28.25 x 27.25 inches, framed Takesada Matsutani is a Japanese avant-ga...
    Category

    1970s Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Screen

  • (Partial) Portfolio containing 3 (three) lithographs and etchings
    By Grafica
    Located in Kansas City, MO
    Grafica '68 (Partial) Portfolio containing 3 (three) lithographs and etchings Originally issued with 10 Lithographs, Silk Screens and Etchings, of which 7 (seven) are missing Year: 1968 Edition: 100 Size: 17.6 x 23.6 in. or 23.6 x 17.6 in. Publisher: Il Torcoliere, Rome - Italy Signatures: Sheets signed and numbered by hand Comes with folio box and individual artists' presentation sheets. --------------------------------- Artists works included: RENZO VESPIGNANI "Report on the artist" Year: 1968 Medium: Lithograph in two colors Edition: 100 Size: 17.6 x 23.6 in. Publisher: Il Torcoliere, Rome - Italy Signed and numbered Ref: RVE_1909_01 LUCIANO DE VITA "Le cavalier inconnu" Year: 1968 Medium: Etching Edition: 100 Size: 23.6 x 17.6 in. Publisher: Il Torcoliere, Rome - Italy Signed and numbered Ref: LDV_1909_01 PIERO GUCCIONE "Images" Year: 1968 Medium: Lithograph in four colors Edition: 100 Size: 23.6 x 17.6 in. Publisher: Il Torcoliere, Rome - Italy Signed and numbered Ref: PGU_1909_01 ======================= Renzo Vespignani was an Italian painter, printmaker and illustrator. Vespignani illustrated the works of Boccaccio, Kafka and T. S. Eliot, among others. In 1956, he co-founded the magazine Citta Aperta and in 1963, co-founded the group II Pro e II Contro for neorealism in figure art. ---------------- Luciano De Vita ( Ancona , 1929 - 1992 ) was an Italian painter , engraver , set designer and lecturer . Born in Ancona, De vita arrived in Bologna in the first post-war period, after having actively participated in the Second World War and having suffered the dramatic consequences. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts and was a pupil of Giorgio Morandi. From 1962 he taught in Milan at the Brera Academy , while in 1975 he returned to Bologna where he obtained the same chair of engraving that had been Morandi's from 1930 to 1956 . De Vita also actively dedicated himself to the theater , overseeing sets and costumes for shows that were also staged at La Scala in Milan. An example is the Turandot curated by Raoul Grassilli. ---------------- Emilio Vedova (9 August 1919 – 25 October 2006) was a modern Italian painter...
    Category

    1960s Modern Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Etching, Lithograph, Screen

  • Modernist Figurative Pop Art Etching and Aquatint "the Artist" Michael Mazur
    By Michael Mazur
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Michael Mazur "The Artist" Hand signed and editioned from the edition of 50 1967 Michael Burton Mazur (1935-August 18, 2009) was an American artist who was described by William Grimes of The New York Times as "a restlessly inventive printmaker, painter, and sculptor." Born and raised in New York City, Mazur attended the Horace Mann School. He received a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1958, then studied art at Yale. Mazur first gained notice for his series of lithographs and etchings of inmates in a mental asylum, which resulted in two publications, "Closed Ward" and "Locked Ward." Over the years, he worked in printmaking and painting. His series of large-scale prints for Dante's Inferno won critical acclaim, and were the subject of a traveling exhibition organized by the University of Iowa in 1994. Later he concentrated on creating large, lyrical paintings which make use of his free, gestural brushwork and a varied palette. Some of these paintings were seen in an exhibition of 2002 at Boston University, "Looking East: Brice Marden, Michael Mazur, and Pat Steir." (See also Susan Danly, "Branching: The Art of Michael Mazur," 1997). The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has acquired a definMichael Mazur received a B.A. from Amherst College in 1957, studying in his senior year at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. He went on to earn both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1961. Mazur's first teaching job was at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1961 to 1964. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for 1964–65. From 1965 to 1976, he taught at Brandeis University, and from 1976 to 1978 at Harvard University. As an artist, teacher, and writer, Mazur has been active in reviving the monotype process. He contributed an essay to the pioneering exhibition catalogue The Painterly Print, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980. Mazur recently chaired the New Provincetown Print...
    Category

    Early 2000s American Modern Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Lithograph, Screen

  • "Dodge Rebellion Girls" - 1967 Original Silkscreen on Paper Artists Proof
    By Marc Foster Grant
    Located in Soquel, CA
    "Dodge Rebellion Girls" - 1967 Silkscreen on Paper 1967 color silkscreen depicting the Dodge Rebellion Girls by Marc Foster Grant (American, b. 1947). A silhouette of the 'dodge gi...
    Category

    1960s American Modern Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Paper, Ink, Screen

Featured in Design ValuesView All
  • Modern Fine 18 Karat Yellow Gold Rectangular Link Bracelet
    Located in Poitiers, FR
    Bracelet in 18 karat yellow gold, eagle head hallmark. This fine pre-owned yellow gold bracelet features interlocking rectangular links. The clasp is a spring ring. Length : 18,5 cm ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Modern Bracelets

    Materials

    Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold

  • TIFFANY & Co. Platinum .12ct Solitaire Diamond Pendant Necklace
    By Tiffany & Co.
    Located in Los Angeles, CA
    TIFFANY & Co. Platinum .12ct Solitaire Diamond Pendant Necklace Metal: Platinum Chain: 16" Pendant: 3.25mm wide Diamond: round brilliant diamond, carat total weight .12 Hallmark: "©...
    Category

    2010s American Pendant Necklaces

    Materials

    Diamond, Platinum

  • GIA Certified Peter Suchy Diamond Halo Rose Gold Engagement Ring
    By Peter Suchy
    Located in Stamford, CT
    Peter Suchy Vintage Inspired 14k rose gold halo Diamond engagement ring. GIA certified .51ct center Diamond F, SI1, surrounded by 0.25ct of F, VS full cut Diamonds. 1 round brillian...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Engagement Rings

    Materials

    Diamond, 14k Gold, Rose Gold, Gold

  • Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Lapis Lazuli Bow Yellow Gold Pendant Necklace
    By Van Cleef & Arpels
    Located in Holland, PA
    18k Yellow Gold Diamond Lapis Lazuli Bow Necklace by Van Cleef & Arpels. With 20 diamond VVS1 clarity, G color total weight .10ct Details: Necklace Length: 15.5'' Pendant: 15mm x...
    Category

    20th Century French Pendant Necklaces

    Materials

    Diamond, Lapis Lazuli, 18k Gold

  • Cartier Love Earring Yellow Gold 12mm Single
    By Cartier
    Located in Aventura, FL
    Cartier LOVE single earring, yellow gold 750/1000. Diameter 12 mm. Sold individually. Details: Brand: Cartier Style: Love Earring Material: Yellow Gold (750/1000) Diameter: 12mm The...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Modernist Hoop Earrings

    Materials

    Yellow Gold

Recently Viewed

View All