Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Les Trois Graces” dance for joy on Park Ave. (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Park Avenue Malls
Park Ave. between 52nd & 60th Sts.
Through November 15, free
www.nikidesaintphalle.org
nikki de saint phalle slideshow
You don’t have to go to the Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Noah’s Ark in Jerusalem, or the Queen Califias Magic Circle in Escondido to see a sculpture park designed by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle. In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of her death — she died of emphysema in 2002 — the Niki Charitable Art Foundation has teamed up with the Nohra Haime Gallery to install ten monumental sculptures along the Park Ave. malls, big, bold figures that bring a different kind of life to one of the world’s most famous thoroughfares. An eclectic character who was also a model, a filmmaker, a playwright, and a feminist, Saint Phalle was the daughter of a count and hung around in impressive artistic circles; among her friends, acquaintances, and colleagues were Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Jean Tinguely (who became one of her husbands), Ed Kienholz, Kenneth Koch, and Merce Cunningham. In fact, it was the pregnancy of Rivers’s wife, Clarice, that inspired Saint Phalle to begin her bold, empowering Nana sculptures of strong women; several Nanas are on view along Park Ave., including “Nana on a Dolphin,” in which an orange woman holding a ball is balancing on a dolphin that seems to be swimming through the air, and “Les Trois Graces,” which consists of three goddesses — one black, one white, one yellow — proudly strutting their stuff. A colorful combination of Fernand Botero’s oversized characters and Antoni Gaudí´s playful architectural style, the sculptures are made of polyester, resin, ceramics, mirrors, and stained glass. As you continue along the malls, you’ll come upon tributes to basketball legend Michael Jordan, baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, and jazz giants Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, from Saint Phalle’s Black Heroes series. There’s also a Native American-inspired “Grand Step Totem” as well as “Les Baigneurs” (“The Bathers”), in which a man and a woman play on the water. At the northern end of the rather unique procession, “Arbre Serpents” references Eve in the Garden of Eden as multiple snake heads lash out in every direction, finding sin wherever they look. After visiting Barcelona in 1955 and falling in love with Gaudí´s Parc Guell, Saint Phalle wrote, “I met both my master and my destiny. I trembled all over. I knew that I was meant to build my own Garden of Joy. A little corner of Paradise. A meeting place between man and nature.” She might have been referring to the Tarot Garden, but it also applies to this happy parade on Park Ave.