Mudec in Milan dedicates a comprehensive retrospective anthology to Niki de Saint Phalle

Mudec - Museo delle Culture in Milan will host in its exhibition spaces from Oct. 5, 2024 to Feb. 16, 2025 a comprehensive retrospective exhibition dedicated to Niki de Saint Phalle (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1930 - San Diego, 2002), curated by Lucia Pesapane and realized in collaboration with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. A tribute to the French-American artist that nevertheless also aims to reveal her committed side through a different reading of her art.

Divided into eight sections, the exhibition narrates Niki de Saint Phalle’s artistic evolution, from her beginnings to her most recent works, following both a diachronic and anthological approach. Through the vibrant, colorful, polymorphous, rounded, and maternal world of her Nanas (and beyond), the exhibition aims to explore a personal life that was far less colorful and maternal. The artist often had to destroy to deal with pain and then rebuild, breaking the mold through unconventional works of art. Her intense provocations and incisive messages have left an indelible mark on the art scene, demonstrating an extraordinary ability to transform the personal into the universal.

110 works will be on display, including a dozen large-scale works and one installed in the museum’s outdoor courtyard. It will also offer a fine selection of dresses from the Maison Dior, recalling Niki de Saint Phalle’s past as a model through photographic shots. These dresses present the public with a “pop” vision of art, seen as a journey of eclectic research, transformation and celebration of beauty and the feminine.

Niki de Saint Phalle lived in an era of great social and artistic changes, such as the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s and Nouveau Réalisme, of which she was a protagonist. She was one of the artists who most challenged gender stereotypes through art, expressing her identity through femininity, sensuality and a deep love of life as creation. She was “woman and artist,” as she liked to call herself, multifaceted: painter, sculptor, experimental filmmaker and performer. Her monumental works, including parks and public sculptures, are interwoven with more personal and sometimes poignant reflection. On the one hand, she was an independent celebrity, proud of her art; on the other, her physical frailty and the many social inequalities and discriminations she witnessed throughout her life highlight her humanity and sensitivity to the weakest.

For info: www.mudec.it

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Mudec in Milan dedicates a comprehensive retrospective anthology to Niki de Saint Phalle

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