Wearing a specially designed shooting suit, St Phalle created a number of works that in addition to being performed ‘Actions’ were also part sculpture, part collage, and part painting. Often the paintings were created in front of a live audience and recorded on film as they were constructed and then shot at. For such events, large collages of objects were coated in plaster and containers of paint were suspended in front of these large pieces or concealed within their structure. When the bullets hit these containers the pigments exploded, spattered and dripped over the white surfaces. This was when Action painting was en vogue, particularly in the male-dominated New York scene.
continue reading at SIGNIFIER...
Read 'Sure Shot', an article at the Opening Ceremony website about Niki De Saint Phalle by Calla Haynes, with some good images of the shootings
Click on image above to buy the Tate book - a good overview
or click on the cover below for a lovely book about her ambitious 'Tarot Garden' sculpture park
The Niki Charitable Art Foundation is the official custodian of the Saint Phalle archives and a great starting point for further research about the artist...
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