Encountering Niki de Saint Phalle

 Message from Michiko Matsumoto                       March 2018

Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) was a French-American artist well remembered for her Nanas, a colorful series of spirited female figures. 

I first met her in 1981 when I visited her home, a former country inn south of Paris. As the door to the stone building opened, there stood before me a svelte woman smiling brightly. In contrast to her dynamic works Niki herself was sylphlike, and radiated an aura of delicate mystery.

My plan was to photograph the artist for just one portrait. However from that first meeting I was so mesmerized by Niki’s unconventional thinking and whimsical nature that for more than a decade I traveled around Europe photographing both her and her works.

Before the joyful, liberated Nana figures, there was a period in Niki’s life when her art was filled with fury and anguish. After that initial visit I went to see a retrospective of her work in Germany. Moving through the chronological exhibits I was left with the impression that I had read a compelling autobiography in one sitting. .

At some point the bodies of her Nana goddesses began to fill out, their shapes softening, their colors growing lighter, too. Niki began making larger and larger Nanas as well as creating sculpture parks, children’s playhouses, and kinetic works such as the Stravinsky Fountain in Paris.

The culmination of her architectural work is the Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy. Huge art structures based on the symbology of the cards dot an olive grove, among them a sphinxlike goddess in which Niki resided. 

One of the voluptuous breasts was her bedroom, the torso her living room and studio. What an ultimate statement of creation—to actually live inside one’s art!

In recent years many museums in Europe have mounted retrospectives of Niki’s oeuvre. The Grand Palais in Paris drew 500,000 visitors in 2014. In Japan, too, a 2015 show at the National Art Center, Tokyo exhibited some 150 works.

Looking back on the many occasions on which I was given the privilege of photographing Niki, I am humbled to have had such special access to her world. The photo sessions we had over the years now seem like a miracle to me. I feel as though I have been entrusted with something precious.

At the same time it occurs to me that the cosmology of Niki’s artistic vision has yet to be fully addressed in my home country of Japan. To that end I’d like to embark on a film project, centered around Niki’s architectural sculptures but also incorporating my portraits of the artist, my photographs documenting her creative process, and those I’ve taken of her works on display across Europe.

 I would also like to interview some of the people I have met in the course of photographing Niki, including her daughter, gallery and art museum representatives, a collector and other supporters, and her granddaughter, who is now a trustee of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. My wish is to have these individuals share their own unique reminiscences of the artist.

As I delve deeper into the heart and soul of Niki’s unbridled creativity, it is my sincere hope that still more of her admirers, including those I have not yet had the good fortune to meet, will be motivated to bring what they can to the making of this film, tentatively titled Viva Niki—The World of Niki de Saint Phalle. 

Together, let’s open the door and cross the threshold into the vast and vibrant space Niki inhabited during her time here on earth.

Profile of Michiko MATSUMOTO

Photographer, Essayist
Since the 1980s, Michiko Matsumoto has traveled the world to capture the portraits of prominent contemporary artists in a diverse range of fields. Her 6 books of photography published to date include' Portraits of New York Women' (1983), 'Niki de Saint Phalle '(1986), 'Portraits of Women Artists '(1995), and 'DANCERS—Portraits of Eros' (1998). 7 books of photography & essay (2005-2017)

Matsumoto is represented by Zeit-Foto Co., Ltd. and Galerie Librairie 6 in Tokyo. Her works are held in the permanent collections of Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and China Art Museum, among others.

(C) Photograph & text by Michiko Matsumoto

   English translation by W. Uchimura and S. Chikuba