Melissa Meier Sculptures

Niki de Saint Phalle Brooch (Oiseau), ca. 2005 Zamak, gold tone finished, nickel free (Incised Signature) Incised signature on the back of the jewelry (Niki De Saint Phalle) and the clasp (Niki). 2 3/10 × 1 3/5 inches Authorized by the Estate of Niki de Saint Phalle! This colorful, whimsical piece - "Oiseau" (Bird) can be worn both as a brooch and as a necklace. Bears the Niki de Saint Phalle's incised signature. Collectible work. Makes a terrific gift. 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...

Cold Cast Bronze Bust Sculpture of Vincent Van Gogh by British Artist & Sculptor Anthony D Padgett BA MA PGDip, Born in 1969. Everyone has an idea o...

ESPERANZA CORTÉS is a Colombian born contemporary multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés has exhibited in the United States in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Smack Mellon Gallery, Neuberger Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Socrates Sculpture Park and White-box Gallery in New York City. Nationally Cortes exhibitions include Cleveland Art Museum, OH, CSU Galleries at Cleveland University, OH, Helen Day Art Center, VT and The Lorenzo Homar...

Peter Anton’s (b. 1963, New Haven, Connecticut) primary subject matter is food with an emphasis on chocolates and other sweets. Anton creates giant realistic sculptures and is best known for his bigger-than-life boxed chocolates. Declaring, “I like to create art that can lure, charm, tease, disarm and surprise,” Peter Anton produces oversized, lushly detailed and delicious-looking sculptures of food...

The relief sculpture is framed. The visible jumps on the legs were intentional and existed from the start, because the artist was inspired by ancient ...

Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, Marble Base, Brass Rod, Mixed Media, Feathers Since graduating from the University of Colorado in 2010, Pichaske has risen to attention in the art wo...

Linda Stein, Loose Wire 295 - Mixed Media Metal Wood Contemporary Art Wall Sculpture In the 1990s Linda Stein began to work on a series called Blades, sculptural works that incorpor...

Linda Stein, Spoon to Shell 891: Spoons Only - Mixed Media Shell Wood Contemporary Assemblage Sculpture Spoon to Shell 891: Spoons Only is from Linda Stein's Holocaust Heroes: Fierc...

Linda Stein, Spoon to Shell 894: Shells Only - Mixed Media Shell Wood Contemporary Assemblage Sculpture Spoon to Shell 894: Shells Only is from Linda Stein's Holocaust Heroes: Fierc...

Curt Stenvert was an Austrian avant-garde artist who initially worked as a painter. His artistic practice gradually expanded to include cinematic works and object art. His works are still internationally acclaimed today. He received his artistic training through his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He studied there with Albert Paris Gütersloh and Fritz Wotruba, which enabled him to deal with aspects of movement and perspective. This resulted in his aluminium plexiglass sculptures. His cinematic works were also influenced by his preoccupation with movement. Movement became a central motif in his works. Stenvert introduces the viewer to the biological, psychological, sociological and philosophical conditions of human existence. He developed experimental, feature-length and documentary films, which won international awards. He had solo museum exhibitions in Sweden, Italy and Germany and took part in the 1966 Venice Biennale. The social aspect preoccupied Stenvert throughout and he translated his impressions and thoughts of student unrest, social protests...

SKYLAR FEIN was born in Greenwich Village and raised in the Bronx. He has had many careers including teaching nonviolent resistance under the umbrella of the Quakers, working for a g...

Linda Stein, Intimate Duo 134 - Mixed Media Assemblage Contemporary Art Wall Sculpture Intimate Duo 134 is from artist Linda Stein's Brush Assemblage series, where she combines foun...