La Baigneuse ou Nana de Berlin

Niki de Saint Phalle (Neuilly-sur-Seine 1930 - San Diego 2002)

Domolith-Kunstwerkstätten Kevelaer. 1973. Polyester, painted in brown, white, red, and green. H. 28 x 34 x 30 cm. Stamped with the signature of Niki de Saint Phalle on the side; numbered 18 on the bottom (out of an edition of 500 copies), Edition Zeit-Magazin Hamburg and Propyläen Refaktur, Berlin (with a red wax seal). The colorful, voluptuous figure of 'Nana',who has embodied the idea of 'body positivity' since the mid-1960s, is more relevant than ever today in the fight against unrealistic body images - Expertise: Certificate by Propyläen Refactur - Provenance: Private property Lower Saxony since 1973 - French-swiss paintress, graphic artist a. sculptor, world famous by her colourful a. opulent female figures, the so called Nanas. S. P. was born near Paris, raised in New York, travelled widely a. worked among others in Switzerland, France, Israel, Italy a. California. In 1955 she met the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely who inspired her to her so called 'shooting paintings’. Since 1962 she began to reflect on the role of women a. created her first Nana figures, initially from wire a. fabric a. exhibited them in Paris in 1964. In 1966 she realized her first large scale project in the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Later the Nanas, made in a great variety of size a. shape, became symbols of female self-confidence a. strength.