Fabulous Niki de Saint Phalle Comes to Quebec

Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) isn’t an artist many Americans know. She’s a sculptor, but don’t think Saint-Gaudens or Canova. Think fat, dancing, polyurethane, and polychromatic Nana series — “Nana” means “chick” in French — and a fantasy Italian medieval town based on Tarot cards. And then we have snake ladies, giant condoms, though she called them obelisks, to be ladylike, her perfume and furniture business, a wrenching autobiography, and shotgun art, which made her famous in the ’60s. She’s a French-born, Paris-acculturated aristocrat, but she’s American, too, having an American mother and having grown up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She’s Swiss as well.

A self-taught artist, she’s firmly set in no movement but borders on Nouveau Réalisme, the French version of Pop. Her art is fun and buoyant, sexy and dogmatic, madcap and, yes, on the edge of psycho. And she’s getting a good, uplifting survey exhibition of her late work in the 1980s and 1990s, on view until January 4, 2026, at Quebec City’s extraordinary Musée national des beaux-arts. It’s called Niki de Saint Phalle — The 1980s and 1990s: Art Unleashed. Quebec City is doing the exhibition in collaboration with Les Abattoirs Musée Frac-Occitanie in Toulouse, France.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) isn’t an artist many Americans know. She’s a sculptor, but don’t think Saint-Gaudens or Canova. Think fat, dancing, polyurethane, and polychromatic Nana series — “Nana” means “chick” in French — and a fantasy Italian medieval town based on Tarot cards. And then we have snake ladies, giant condoms, though she called them obelisks, to be ladylike, her perfume and furniture business, a wrenching autobiography, and shotgun art, which made her famous in the ’60s. She’s a French-born, Paris-acculturated aristocrat, but she’s American, too, having an American mother and having grown up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She’s Swiss as well.

A self-taught artist, she’s firmly set in no movement but borders on Nouveau Réalisme, the French version of Pop. Her art is fun and buoyant, sexy and dogmatic, madcap and, yes, on the edge of psycho. And she’s getting a good, uplifting survey exhibition of her late work in the 1980s and 1990s, on view until January 4, 2026, at Quebec City’s extraordinary Musée national des beaux-arts. It’s called Niki de Saint Phalle — The 1980s and 1990s: Art Unleashed. Quebec City is doing the exhibition in collaboration with Les Abattoirs Musée Frac-Occitanie in Toulouse, France.