Niki de Saint Phalle
We, too, would love to sit on the knees of Charly (1981), the armchair that evokes for the artist the mutual affection binding her to the gallerist Micheline Szwajcer and her husband Charly.
Charly has taken up residence at M.A.K. Galerie. He arrived with his Quatre Nanas (1991), the fountain from the Tarot Garden which, in a reduced version, also followed Niki de Saint Phalle into her studio in Soisy-sur-École.
Photograph: Laurent Codominas. © Niki Charitable Art Foundation
While the emblematic Nana figure is indeed represented here (Nana vase, 1984; Angel vase, 1993; Loving Bird vase, 2000), it gives way to much rarer pieces. At 24 avenue Matignon, one will see The Devil from the Tarot Garden, presented at the major Grand Palais retrospective in Paris in 2014, as well as pieces of furniture shown in Toulouse in 2022 in a much-discussed exhibition, later restaged at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in 2025.
Vase with Two Heads (1989), the Grand Camel (1991), the double-faced Dog Vase (1992), and “Black Hero” #19 Baseball Player (1999) are characteristic of this “Art in Freedom”—an art of freedom, for Freedom.
Niki de Saint Phalle freed herself from rules. Who said there is only one way to sit on a chair? After the famous snake armchairs, and the anthropomorphic seats—including Charly—the artist imagined Dos-à-dos (1993): sulk, play musical chairs, or sit astride… in short, dare!
Niki de Saint Phalle’s furniture-sculptures take center stage at M.A.K. Galerie. The works are signed and bear the stamp of the Haligon workshop, specialized in the production of art resins and located in Val-de-Marne. The collaboration began with Robert, the father, in the mid-1970s, and continued with Gérard, the son. What initially were creations meant as sets for her films—in the pursuit of a total art—became an art of living, as evidenced by archival photographs showing Niki de Saint Phalle living among her own furniture.