In association with the Sprengel Museum Hannover and the Niki Charitable Art Foundation - which holds the estates of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely - the Museum Tinguely organised this original exhibition about the “Bonnie and Clyde of the arts”, one of the most interesting and famous couples in modern art. The collaboration between the two artists is reflected in common or individual works -, shown in original if they can be shipped, or as models, through photos, drawings or posters - , their artistic partnership and, of course, their personal relationship.
Two artistic paths
Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely were part of the French movement “Les Nouveaux Réalistes”, founded in 1960 by the Parisian critic Pierre Restany, bringing together artists like Yves Klein, César, Christo and Daniel Spoerri. In Paris, they also met young American artists such as Jasper Johns - who participated in 1961 in an exhibition of Niki de Saint Phalle’s shootings - and Robert Rauschenberg with whom the two collaborated in different theatrical happenings. By the time Jean Tinguely first came to New York in 1960 to create his self-destructive Homage to New York at the MOMA, he was already quite well known as the artist who reinvented movement in art. Niki’s shootings made her famous a year later. The exhibition presents the artistic path of both artists, from their very beginnings in the early Fifties throughout their whole careers.
You could put some feathers on your things...
One of the most interesting parts in the two artists’ lives is their collaboration. They could act as each other’s assistant, advisor, instigator of ideas, co-creator. Technical help was possible and given. Often, Tinguely welded the iron substructure of Niki’s larger sculptures. So was creative advice, the most famous of which was Niki’s remark to Tinguely You could put some feathers on your things, which he did, thus creating his most important group of works called Baloubas.They created together sculptures, such as the Assemblage with Fire-Engine, in 1960, or Portrait sur patins à roulettes, in 1961, the monumental HON, at the Moderna Museet, in 1966, the even more gigantic Cyclop, or Niki’s Tarot-Garden. There were Niki’s films, in which Tinguely played an important role, and Tinguely’s happenings of the early Sixties, in which Niki was present and active; and the happenings, in which both of them cooperated with other artists like Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, David Tudor or Nicolas Petit.
An adventurous love
Both artists, throughout their lives, carried on an intense exchange of letters – to each other, but also to third parties such as Pontus Hulten, their lifelong friend. In the letters they wrote to each other, their very close relationship is a theme, but also the many friendships both of them had with other personalities. They write about artistic projects and about their life, about gain and loss of love and partner. The letters and the partly-published writings of Niki de Saint Phalle reveal an adventurous love between two radically independent personalities. Besides the works on paper, which are part of the collections at the Sprengel and the Museum Tinguely, the exhibition had access to Niki’s personal archives and shows for the first time many of the very personal letters and writings, which she always kept stored away from public view.
Illustration: Niki de Saint Phalle / Jean Tinguely, Rough for the HON poster, 1966 Gouache & felt pen on paper, printed, 101 x 70 cm Museum Tinguely, Basel © Photo : Christian Baur
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