Niki de Saint Phalle: The Garden of Secrets by Dominique Osuch (review)

A biography of a celebrated female artist written in the form of a graphic novel, Osuch and Martin's Niki de Saint Phalle: The Garden of Secrets is a moving work that captures not only the dramatic events of Niki de Saint Phalle's life but it also creatively infuses feminist perspectives and theory into the presentation of the brilliant but troubled artist's parcours.

The sculptress, painter and designer known as Niki de Saint Phalle was born Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle in 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France and died in La Jolla, California in 2002. This graphic novel—written for the most part in Saint Phalle's voice—begins with the artists's birth and immediately propels the reader into the artist's chaotic life; the character of Niki describes a childhood devoid of parental love and attention, moving often between France and the eastern coast of the United States with her French father and American mother. At age twelve, she is molested by her father, triggering a lifelong battle with depression and other mental health issues. As a teen, Niki struggles in school and her rebellious spirit even leads to expulsion. At age nineteen, she marries Harry Matthews and the couple soon have a child, Laura, in 1951. It is this part of the book especially that profoundly marks the reader, as Niki is subjected to the barbaric childbirth practices in the United States at the time; physically restrained while giving birth followed by the confinement and seclusion she felt as a new mother were all lived by her as torture and these experiences drive Niki to declare herself a staunch feminist.

The family moves to France soon after Laura's birth but Niki is plagued by severe mental health issues; she discovers art as a means of escape even though she ends up rejecting the structure imposed by traditional art school curricula. She becomes a self-taught artist and by 1960, Niki leaves her husband and two children behind in order to devote herself entirely to art. By this time, she has already met the Swiss artist, Jean Tinguely, whom she will eventually marry in 1971 after having collaborated with him for many years on a variety of artistic projects and exhibits.

The last two-thirds of the book concentrate heavily on Niki de Saint Phalle's specific works of art and how they evolved. Although Saint Phalle is an artist who was difficult to categorize, she had always infused feminism into her works as an essential element. Her first celebrated exhibit in the early 60s, Tirs, was not only a means for healing the wounds of her childhood but it was also an attack against patriarchy in all its forms as well as a protest of societal norms that restricted and even destroyed women and their creativity and independence. By 1965, her style seemed more playful and colorful even though the bright figures known as Nanas were meant to make male critics who dominated the art world uncomfortable; the sculptures represented the modern, curvy woman and all her "imperfections" and mocked the unrealistic expectations that men have of women and their bodies. Saint Phalle's final years focused on the making of public art and she created several indoor and outdoor sculpture gardens—Hon at the Moderna Museet in Sweden and later, Le jardin des tarots in Italy, and Queen Califia's Magic Circle in California. With the loss of Tinguely in 1991 and her own illness which brought her back to the United States for good, Saint Phalle's later years were also rife with pain. The book ends with her reflections on 9-11, an event that affected her deeply, and the words: "What's for sure, is that, if I hadn't created, I would have destroyed. Yes, I'd have made a rather fearsome terrorist!" (179).

The...