The luxury brand La Prairie, announces the retrospective exhibition of the artist Niki de Saint Phalle at MoMA in NY honoring the visionary spirit and challenging social norms and her willingness to break with the established, both personally and at work.
The exhibition ‘Structures for Life’, will feature more than 200 works created from the mid-1960s until the artist’s death. Works, which since Saint Phalle’s youth, have sparked conversations about women’s equality and various themes that bring attention to both racial and gender equity. These works still continue to inspire generations of emerging artists.
Niki de Saint Phalle’s feminist spirit
Niki de Saint Phalle working on set for The Travelling Companion in her studio near Milly-la-Forêt.
Ruba Katrib, curator of the exhibition states:
Niki de Saint Phalle created artworks that explicitly rejected patriarchal values and artistic conventions.
The luxury brand leader in skin care, sees this exhibition as a great opportunity to show society the interdisciplinary approach of the artist. The exhibition will pick up that idea as the main one and will focus on works she created as a pretense of starting a change in her social environment.
The unique perspective of Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle. Last Night I Had a Dream. 1968-88. Pintado en poliéster.
The artist also shaped artistic movements such as the Nouveau Réalisme, a group founded in the 1960s, in which Niki de Saint Phalle was the only female participant among well-known male profiles such as Yves Klein or Tinguely.
According to Ruba Katrib, Niki de Saint Phalle’s Lullabies confront Western standards of femininity and decorum, being impetuous, ecstatic and making sexuality visible. By earning her place among the male profiles, the artist demonstrates talent and worth.
Greg Prodromides, Marketing Director at La Prairie, explains that:
We are particularly proud to be able to support the life, work and cultural legacy of the artist we consider a fundamental meeting for our Casa.
This partnership between La Prairie and the MoMa PS1 has the objective of expanding support for all artistic and cultural freedom, to create new nodes of connection with the art world and its artistic representatives.
The creative exchange between La Prairie and Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle. The Woman and the Fountain Bird. 1967-88. Painted polyester resin. 137 3/4 × 118 1/8.
This is not the first time that La Prairie and Niki de Saint Phalle have shared a flow of ideas. The color so often used by Saint Phalle,cobalt blue was the one that inspired La Praire to stamp its Skin Caviar collection.
Greg Prodromides expounds that:
This collaboration with MoMa PS1 is a significant opportunity for us to share the philosophy with the world and associate its spirit: pioneering, persevering, strong, feminist, with that of La Prairie.
La Prairie shares with the artist the will to break with the codes, in her case of luxury. Therefore, this meeting with the artist supposes a simile between both spirits following the same path of adjectives: explorers, pioneers and adventurers.
From March 11 to September 6, 2021.
Photographs courtesy of La Prairie
