'Dawn (noire)'

Online collection text: The vast majority of Niki de Saint-Phalle’s work questions and comments on the state of the world, society and the major issues of her times. In the 1960s, for instance, she created a series of performance artworks called Tirs (Shooting Paintings) by firing a rifle at bags of paint on canvas, addressing contemporary issues such as the Cold War or the Algerian War. Niki de Saint-Phalle started exploring various themes linked to women’s societal roles including maternity and marriage, but viewed as a kind of imprisonment. She gradually freed her female figures from the walls they were attached to, giving them space, movement and colour. She named them Nanas, a French slang term for young women, more or less corresponding to ‘chick’. The artist also started to use new materials such as polyester, allowing her Nanas to develop using more fluid forms and shapes. Without a definite face, the Nanas represent all women, free women, liberated from their shackles. They are joyful, playful, at ease with and within their bodies. Niki de Saint-Phalle was one of the first artists to explicitly discuss the condition of women in her art, in a virulent way, at the very beginning of the 1960s when the second wave of feminism had only just started developing in the United States. In making engaged art, de Saint-Phalle wanted to create art that was accessible to all. Many of her sculptures are on display in public spaces. She even launched a collection of inflatable Nanas available for a limited price. Some of them belong to the House of European History’s handling collection.