On Guide: n11 Sculpture: Clarice again Location: Near athletes (n10) Clarice again, a painted polyester sculpture, is one of Nikis earliest works. She was inspired by the feminine curves of her pregnant friend Clarice, the wife of the American artist Larry Rivers. In 1965, Niki began to consider female figures as models for womens position in society. In Clarice again, you can see an early manifestation of her Nana series. Clarice is a full-figured everywoman who revitalizes the ancient form of ...
Apr 29, 2008•46 sec
On Guide: n10 Sculptures: #19 Baseball Player, #23 Basketball Player, and Golf Player Location: Near Mausoleum When Niki became a great-grandmother, she began to reflect on her own experiences growing up. She felt there were no strong female figures or cultural heroines to inspire her as a child. As she searched for inspirational role models for her bi-racial great-grandchild, Niki saw a lack of positive African-American heroes and cultural icons. She created a series of Black Heroes, representi...
Apr 29, 2008•39 sec
On Guide: n9 Sculpture: Obelisque bleu avec des fleurs Location: Museum Building Niki was acutely aware of contemporary events and social crises. In the 1980s, several of her closest friends, including a studio assistant, became ill and died of AIDS. In response, Niki produced an art book about AIDS education and prevention, called You Cant Catch It Holding Hands, and also Obelisque bleu avec des fleurs. Obelisque bleu avec des fleurs is commonly viewed as a simple decorated vertical column cove...
Apr 29, 2008•51 sec
On Guide: n7 Sculpture: Nana on A Dolphin Location: Dry Streambed Garden Nikis powerful, playful females decorated with hearts and flowers, called Nanas, are among her best known works. These voluptuous ladies have appeared in museums and outdoor sculpture exhibitions around the world. Nana is French for the word chick or babe in American slang. Niki celebrated women as sources of life and vitality. She herself fit the popular cultures notion of beauty. As a teenager, she appeared as a fashion m...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
On Guide: n6 Sculpture: Large Yelling Man Totem Location: Gladney Rose Garden Nikis Totems reveal her exploration of Native American culture and traditions. She always admired American Indian totems and felt they contained a spiritually protective, mysterious glow. She consulted Native American experts and invited them to monitor their ritualistic installation in her magical Queen Califias circle sculpture garden in California. These sculptures are based on the structure, symbolism and spiritual...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
On Guide: n6 Sculpture: Bird Head Totem Location: Gladney Rose Garden My name is Marcelo Zitelli, I worked with Niki the last 16 years of her life and now I am a trustee of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. I met Niki in 1987 and I found a very open and charming person. Even if I was shy she talked to my like an equal, someone who was able to work directly with her. Right away we have a very good relationship and our relationship was based in our love of theatre. She wanted to be an actress wh...
Apr 29, 2008•2 min
On Guide: n5 Sculpture: Les Trois Grces Location: Swift Family Garden Nikis powerful, playful females decorated with hearts and flowers, called Nanas, are among her best known works. These voluptuous ladies have appeared in museums and outdoor sculpture exhibitions around the world. Nana is French for the word chick or babe in American slang. Niki celebrated women as sources of life and vitality. She herself fit the popular cultures notion of beauty. As a teenager, she appeared as a fashion mode...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
On Guide: n23 Sculpture: Buddha Location: Outside Shoenberg Temperate House Most of Nikis sculptures are made of polyurethane foam, some with a steel structure underneath. They are covered with polyester, before the mosaic pieces are attached with silicon or epoxy. The mosaic pieces are glass, mirrors, ceramic tiles and polished stones that Niki called M&M's. Sadly, Nikis art proved to be detrimental to her health. In the late 1960s, she began covering her sculptures with polyester paint to ...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
On Guide: n22 Sculpture: Femme Bleu Location: Shoenberg Temperate House Air became part of Nikis artistic palette with her see-through The Skinnies, made of bronze and polyurethane paint. Niki saw New Man is Coming and Femme Bleu as air sculptures that breathe and invite you to look right through them. She linked their breathing and skeletal look with the experiences of her own ailing body.
Apr 29, 2008•20 sec
On Guide: n4 Sculpture: Chairs Location: Linnean House Niki was prolific in her production of large-scale sculpture and entire environments of art. But she also wanted to create pieces on a domestic scale that people could have in their homes. Chairs, Grand lphant vase, and even the Oiseau amoureux are examples of this period of her work. Oiseau amoureux inside the Climatron was originally designed to be a giant kite for a worldwide traveling kite exhibition in 1988. Birds had a constant theme i...
Apr 29, 2008•38 sec
On Guide: n21 Sculpture: Oiseau amoreux Location: Climatron Niki was prolific in her production of large-scale sculpture and entire environments of art. But she also wanted to create pieces on a domestic scale that people could have in their homes. Chairs, Grand lphant vase, and even the Oiseau amoureux are examples of this period of her work. Oiseau amoureux inside the Climatron was originally designed to be a giant kite for a worldwide traveling kite exhibition in 1988. Birds had a constant th...
Apr 29, 2008•38 sec
On Guide: n21 Sculpture: Star Fountain Location: Climatron Two sculptures in this exhibitionStar Fountain and Arbres Serpent (n2)are closely related to Nikis Tarot Garden. In the 1970s, inspired by the artist Gauds park in Barcelona, Niki dreamed of creating a sculpture garden based on the cards of the Tarot deck used by fortune tellers. An Italian patron offered her land in southern Tuscany, where she completed her Tarot Garden in 1998, just four years before she died. The project took 20 years...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
On Guide: n20 Sculpture: Miles Davis Location: Cohen Amphitheater In 1998, Niki began work on a series of Black Hero sculptures, paying tribute to prominent African-Americans. They included jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, who was born and raised just across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis. Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong are not only cultural icons, but also draw upon Nikis early marriage and life in Paris. Her first husband was a musician who was interested in jazz. The ...
Apr 29, 2008•49 sec
On Guide: n20 Sculpture: Louis Armstrong Location: Cohen Amphitheater In 1998, Niki began work on a series of Black Hero sculptures, paying tribute to prominent African-Americans. They included jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, who was born and raised just across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis. Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong are not only cultural icons, but also draw upon Nikis early marriage and life in Paris. Her first husband was a musician who was interested in jazz. ...
Apr 29, 2008•49 sec
On Guide: n18 Sculpture: Grand lphant vase Location: Kemper Center circle Niki was prolific in her production of large-scale sculpture and entire environments of art. But she also wanted to create pieces on a domestic scale that people could have in their homes. Chairs, Grand lphant vase, and even the Oiseau amoureux are examples of this period of her work. Oiseau amoureux inside the Climatron was originally designed to be a giant kite for a worldwide traveling kite exhibition in 1988. Birds had...
Apr 29, 2008•38 sec
On Guide: n17 Sculpture: Nikigator Location: Near Kemper Center My name is Laura Gabriela, and Im Nikis daughter. I remember Niki as the wise Nikigator. Niki was undaunted by opposition, she wasnt afraid of being attacked. On the contrary she took it all as a response and it stimulated her and it gave fuel to her fire and she knew she that was on the right track and she had more to do and it just kept her going. As a kid I was a little you know scared sometimes because these artists bring things...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
On Guide: n16 Sculpture: Seals Location: Shapleigh Fountain Niki said that for many years, a good deal of her work was concerned with bringing joy, color, and an aggressive humor and fantasy to life. Nikis playful animals were part of her vision of sculpture committed to bringing joy. The colorful mosaics that cover them appeal to both the eye and the body. Niki felt it was very important that both adults and children interact with her sculptures. She loved to see children climb on these animals...
Apr 29, 2008•54 sec
On Guide: n15 Sculpture: La Cabeza Location: Lehmann Rose Garden This six-ton smiling skull was inspired by a trip Niki made to Mexico in the late 1970s. She liked the cheerful way in which Mexicans deal with the subject of death. The Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead seems to inform La Cabeza as a face of death that is both festive and contemplative. It pulls viewers in as it reflects life back. The piece is an inventory of the materials Niki used, from mother of pearl, to geometric mirr...
Apr 29, 2008•45 sec
On Guide: n13 Sculpture: Le Temple idal Location: Outside Climatron Le Temple idal, also known as the Church of all Religions, is the scale of a playhouse. Niki originally conceived the idea in the early 1970s as a response to religious intolerance she observed while working in Jerusalem. She proposed a chapel where all religions could come together in peace. This sculpture was actually a study for a building that Niki wanted to create for the new millennium. In 1991, she made this large scale m...
Apr 29, 2008•31 sec
On Guide: n12 Sculpture: Guardian Lions Location: Bottle Brush Buckeyes By making gay, joyous sculpture maybe Im saying, Look, the world is awful but it is also great. So lets enjoy its greatness. My work is about color, the changing of colors for dreams and emotionsred, blue, yellow, green, purple. And its about roundness and the curves of nature. My work gives me hope, enthusiasm, structure. My work is my REAL DIARY.Niki de Saint Phalle
Apr 29, 2008•28 sec
On Guide: n2 Sculpture: Arbres Serpent Location: Spoehrer Plaza Catherine Marie-Agnes de Saint Phalle was born in 1930 to an aristocratic family in France and raised in New York City. She was a somewhat rebellious child, who preferred to be called Niki. In her early twenties she suffered a nervous breakdown and turned to visual art as a means of survival. Niki became the only female member of Europes most important post-World War II art movement, the New Realists. She collaborated with, and late...
Apr 29, 2008•1 min
