This major international exhibition's Canadian premiere is being held at the MNBAQ from June 12, 2025, to January 4, 2026, celebrating the remarkable freedom that the French-American artist enjoyed in the 1980s and '90s, the last two decades of her career. The Québec City exhibition brings together over 150 works—sculptures, paintings, drawings, and art books—to provide a fascinating glimpse into the profound, inventive, dedicated, and colourful world of this leading figure in contemporary art.
A FREE ARTIST
Niki de Saint Phalle came to fame in the 1960s and '70s for her Tirs (paintings made by shooting canvas with a rifle), her involvement in the Nouveau Réalisme movement, and the flamboyant symbols of women's liberation known as Nanas. However, her late work in the 1980s and '90s also deserves recognition; for the artist, these iconic decades were characterized by great creative freedom, financial independence, and a passionate dedication to universal causes.
Art history tends to overlook the final decades of an artist's career, especially when the artist is a woman. The exhibition, produced in collaboration with Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse and with the generous support of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, starts in 1978. This was the year the artist began construction on the monumental Tarot Garden in Italy, a project that would become both a home and a celebration of art by the time it opened in 1998. Inspired by Antoni Gaudí's Parc Güell in Barcelona, Niki de Saint Phalle created a park of 22 monumental sculptures representing the Major Arcana in the tarot deck. The park's walls, arcades, and winding streets turn it into a miniature town resembling a medieval Italian city. At the time, the artist was particularly interested in bringing art to the people.
BRINGING ART INTO PEOPLE'S LIVES
"For me, art and life are the same.
That's why my sculptures are part of people's everyday lives."
– Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle brought art to the public in a multitude of ways, many of which eschewed conventional venues for art. In particular, she created numerous pieces for public spaces. Beyond the Tarot Garden, other remarkable works include the famous Stravinsky Fountain, which she co-created with Jean Tinguely opposite the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Queen Califia's Magical Circle, a sculpture park in Escondido, California.
In a bid to democratize art by making it accessible to everyone, and to transform everyday life into something exceptional, Niki de Saint Phalle also created artist's furniture (armchairs, tables, vases, lamps, mirrors), books, jewellery, and perfumes. In fact, it was her eponymous perfume, launched in 1982, that allowed her to become her own patron. Her bold entrepreneurial model was criticized at the time, but today it's recognized as avant-garde.
JOY, AN UNEXPECTED FORCE
"Having been a long-time rebel with a rifle […] I am giving something back to society. I want to bring people joy. […] I understood that there is nothing more shocking than joy."
– Niki de Saint Phalle
The artist also used joy as a strategy of resistance against violence and injustice, which is reflected in the motifs that ran through the featured decades: colourful monsters, sculptures covered in mosaics and mirrors, animals and Nanas, hearts and skulls.
EMBRASSER PLUSIEURS CAUSES UNIVERSELLES
Niki de Saint Phalle fought for social justice by getting involved in numerous causes, from the fight for women's rights and the fight against racism to the protection of animals and the environment. She was also one of the earliest supporters of AIDS sufferers. Her dedication to feminism and the environment, along with the fact that she saw all living things—human, plant, and animal alike—as interdependent, made her a pioneer of ecofeminism.
By embracing all living beings, nature, and the circle of life, Niki de Saint Phalle's art appeals to our emotions. What a privilege to celebrate her work and her contribution to art history in Québec City!
SPECTACULAR, INSPIRED DESIGN
"As in all fairy tales, before finding the treasure I encountered dragons,
witches, magicians and the Angel of Temperance."
– Niki de Saint Phalle
One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition's design is its use of arches, which come in a variety of forms to elegantly mark the transitions between the nine different sections. They recall the architectural details of the Tarot Garden and represent gateways between the real and the imaginary.
Their colours echo the palette that characterizes the artist's work. The blue is a nod to the Mediterranean basin where the Tarot Garden is located, while the light pink is inspired by the ceramic covering one of the Garden's sculptures, that of the Empress. The bright pink is a recurring colour in Saint Phalle's work, the white represents unpainted sculptures, and the yellow pays tribute to the deserts of California, where the artist spent her final days. The explosion of brilliant colours is sure to delight MNBAQ visitors!
IMMERSIVE TOUCHES
To bring the adventure of the Tarot Garden to life for visitors in Québec City, a film crew was tasked with producing a video of the masterpiece in Italy. Through a series of bird's-eye and up-close shots, visitors can explore different perspectives on the characters who populate this wholly unique green space and, above all, enjoy the creative genius Niki de Saint Phalle brought to the last 20 years of her career.
This video fits into the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec's innovative new approach to exhibition design, which involves creating immersive experiences that appeal to multiple senses and designing settings that encourage contemplation and consideration. To that end, visitors will be able to enjoy a collection of audio and video elements as they move through the exhibition.
STRONG, STRIKING WORKS
This exhibition, an homage to the imaginary, is divided into nine themes: The Snake Lady's Bestiary, Exploring the Tarot Garden, The Project of a Lifetime, The Skinnies, Living with Art, Fighting through Art, Writing the Self, The American Years, and Monumental Niki de Saint Phalle.
One of the exhibition's main attractions is the Arbre Serpents. This tree, an intriguing giant that unites earth and sky, occupies a special place in Saint Phalle's work. It's a fountain sculpture that echoes the Tree of Life in the Tarot Garden. Its branches are massive snakes: an animal that represents the cycle of life, and which the artist found equal parts frightening and fascinating.
The maquette of the Sphinx is one of the original maquettes that Niki de Saint Phalle designed for the monumental Empress sculpture in the Tarot Garden. The artist had dreamt of living in one of her sculptures and actually lived in the Empress' belly for a few years as she supervised construction on her fantastical Garden.
La Femme bleue serves as an introduction to Saint Phalle's Skinnies series. These sculptures, made of threadlike tubes, explore empty space and the play of light. La Femme bleue can also be seen as a mythical feminine figure bearing various esoteric symbols like the moon, stars, and a hand, which is both a symbol of protection and representative of The Magician's hand in the tarot deck.
Le Banc des générations is a tribute to Niki de Saint Phalle's family; it features her great-grandson Djamal in a lovely polka-dot tie. This bench comes in three different colours, all produced in the same year. The iteration displayed at the MNBAQ is unique. It comes from the collection of the Mingei International Museum in San Diego and sports particularly vivid colours.
The drawings in AIDS: You Can't Catch It Holding Hands attest to the artist's ability to share information on a difficult subject with humour and tenderness, in the form of a letter to her children. It focuses on deeply human, loving relationships.
The artist was also aware of the importance of representing racialized groups in public spaces, leading her to create the Black Heroes sculpture series. With these sculptures, she pays tribute to athletes Michael Jordan and Tony Gwynn, as well as artists such as Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and Josephine Baker.
The Angel of Temperance can be seen in the giant glass-walled showcase that is the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion's Grand Hall. This golden-winged Nana, over five meters tall, closely resembles the Temperance sculpture in the Tarot Garden.
NIKIDE SAINT PHALLE, IN A NUTSHELL
"Very early on, I decided to become a heroine.
Who would I be? George Sand? Joan of Arc? Napoleon in a skirt?
Whatever I ended up doing, I wanted it to be difficult, exciting, spectacular."
– Niki de Saint Phalle, 1999
A self-taught artist, Niki de Saint Phalle was born in 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine in a noble family. Although she was born in France, she spent her youth in New York before returning to Europe in 1952 with her first husband, writer Harry Mathews (1930-2017), with whom she had two children and from whom she separated after several years.
She first worked as a model and made her debut in the theatre. In 1953, she was hospitalized for depression and began to paint and produce collages. She abandoned the theatre and chose art as a form of life and survival. In 1956, she settled in the Impasse Ronsin, the locale of artists' studios in Paris, where she met sculptor Jean Tinguely, who became her life partner in 1960. Starting in 1961, she was the only woman artist associated with the group of new realists, and she developed her practice in opposition to convention. She produced shooting paintings. For two years, destruction sustained by rage and determination enabled her to reconstruct painting differently.
In 1966, the Nanas became the most celebrated portion of her work, including Hon ("she" in Swedish), a monumental Nana. This army of Nanas in numerous shapes and colours is an artistic and feminist assertion, assumed and reasserted, in which we can all recognize ourselves.
In 1967, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely visited Montréal to present Le Paradis fantastique on the terrace of the French pavilion at Expo 67.
In 1978, she launched the construction of the Tarot Garden in Garavicchio (Capalbio, Italy), whose monumental sculptures are inspired by the major arcana of the tarot game. She worked for 20 years in this garden of wonders. The park opened in 1998.
While her output in the 1960s and 1970s and the couple that she formed with Jean Tinguely, nicknamed the Bonnie and Clyde of art, are well known, it is also important to point out other facets of her work and life, especially her works from the period 1980 to 1990, marked by her social and political commitments, and her tremendous contribution to the artistic freedom of women.
In 1980, the Centre Georges-Pompidou devoted a retrospective spanning 30 years of her career, which took stock from another angle of the work of Niki de Saint Phalle and included her on the list of great French women artists.
Her works are presented in the foremost museum collections: the Centre Pompidou (Paris); the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (Paris); the Moderna Museet (Stockholm); Tate Modern (London); the Sprengel Museum Hannover (Hanover); the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC); The Museum of Modern Art (New York); the Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain (Nice); the Musée des Arts décoratifs (Paris); and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), among others.
Niki de Saint Phalle died of respiratory failure at the San Diego Hospital on May 21, 2002.
DIVE DEEPER WITH AN AUDIO GUIDE
Creating, Resisting, Loving: Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1980s and 1990s
An audio tour gives visitors the chance to dive even deeper into the incredibly rich world Niki de Saint Phalle created over the last two decades of her career. Some twenty stations introduce key works that highlight everything from her artistic experimentation to her feminist, environmental, and social activism. From the Tarot Garden to the most unexpected mediums, visitors will see how Saint Phalle blurred the lines between art and life, dream and reality, while turning joy into a true strategy of resistance. It's a fascinating exploration of the life of this French-American artist. Bring your headphones! TO LISTEN, click here!
NEW! THROUGH A CHILD'S EYES
To make the exhibition more inclusive for families, the MNBAQ has thoughtfully prepared special panels along the pathway. They're close to the works and easy to identify and read. In fact, you could even say it's child's play! With playful questions, suggestions for elements to focus on, and open-ended explorations, the panels help families enjoy an interactive, thought-provoking visit. They encourage parents and children to talk about the works, providing opportunities to share opinions and questions. The 12 panels are spread along the entire route and cover the works of Niki de Saint Phalle as an artist, and the themes she explored in her art. We bet that plenty of adults will also be curious enough to read them and follow this new path!
MARGIE GILLIS DANCES NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD) has orchestrated a performance of pieces by the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation that draw inspiration from Niki de Saint Phalle's work. The renowned choreographer and dancer, along with the artists of the Legacy Project, will celebrate freedom of expression as well as women's creative power and profound connection to the world. The performance is being held on Sunday, June 15 at 2 p.m. in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec Sandra and Alain Bouchard Auditorium.
On the program: a recent solo by Margie Gillis, Remembered Premonitions, created in 2024 for the FQD and performed to original music by Niko Friesen. Next, the Legacy Project dancers will perform The Whole Bloomin' Thing, a dance inspired by James Joyce that explores his seminal work Ulysses. A dance celebration you won't want to miss.
CREDITS
Niki de Saint Phalle – The 1980s and 1990s : Art Unleashed, An exhibition produced by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in collaboration with les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse and with the participation of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. The exhibition has received financial support from the Gouvernement du Québec and the Ville de Québec under the Entente de développement culturel.
MANAGEMENT
Jean-Luc MURRAY, Director General, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Anik DORION-COUPAL, Director of Exhibitions and International Partnerships, MNBAQ
CURATORSHIP AND DIDACTIC TEXTS
Maude LÉVESQUE, concept adaptation and texts, MNBAQ
Annabelle TÉNÈZE, concept and original texts, Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse
MUSÉE NATIONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DU QUÉBEC TEAM
Loïc LEFEBVRE, Exhibition Designer
Philippe LEGRIS, Graphic Design Coordination
Claude-Olivier RICHARD, Noémie JUTEAU, Michel PELLETIER, Samuel POULIN, Jean-François ROY, Audiovisual – lighting design, video and technical integration
Valérie ALLARD, Florence GARIEPY, Delphine EGESBORG, Anna-Sophie BLOUIN, Danielle BOUTIN, Éva CHATIGNY, Charlotte COUGNAUD, Jacinthe DUBE, Élisabeth GIRARD-DIONNE, Myriam DUFOUR, Agathe LEGENDRE, Claudèle MULLER, Emmanuel SIMARD, Julien ST-GEORGES-TREMBLAY, Rosalie ST-ONGE, Gallery Mediation – content and guided tours
EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS
Marc-André ROY, Graphic Design
Paolo SODI, Anastasiia LAPITKSAIA, Dario FEDELE, Guglielmo BALDINI, Video Production – Tarot Garden
PARTNERS AND LENDERS
LES ABATTOIRS, MUSÉE – FRAC OCCITANIE TOULOUSE
NIKI CHARITABLE ART FOUNDATION
LA FONDATION DU JARDIN DES TAROTS
SPECIAL THANKS
To the Mingei International Museum of San Diego, to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and to all the lenders for their essential contribution to the exhibition.
NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE – THE 1980S AND 1990: ART UNLEASHED
Pierre Lassonde Pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
From June 12, 2025 to January 4, 2026
SOURCE Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
PRESS CONTACTS: Linda Tremblay, Media Relations Officer, MNBAQ, 418 262-4681, [email protected]; Montréal, Rosemonde Gingras, Rosemonde Communications, 514 458-8355, [email protected]
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