{"id":18416,"date":"2018-05-24T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=18416"},"modified":"2018-05-23T18:52:10","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:52:10","slug":"niki-de-saint-phalle-the-garden-of-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2018\/05\/24\/niki-de-saint-phalle-the-garden-of-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"Niki de Saint Phalle: The Garden of Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Dominique Osuch <\/strong>& Sandrine Martin<\/strong>, translated by Joe Johnson<\/strong> (NBM)
\nISBN: 978-1-68112-158-1<\/p>\n

NBM’s magnificent line of European-created modern biographies always offers a treasure-trove of potent wonderment and this latest luxury hardcover release (also available in all eBook formats) is arguably one of the most beguiling graphic releases of the year.<\/p>\n

Catherine-Marie-Agn\u00c3\u00a8s Fal de Saint Phalle was born on October 29th<\/sup> 1930 and for most of the 20th<\/sup> century towered over the fickle world of Avant Garde art as Niki de Saint Phalle.<\/p>\n

She was a model, actress, writer, filmmaker, painter and sculptor, but made her greatest visual impact as a creator of gigantic assemblages and themed gardens. She was also a passionate and strident activist and advocate of cultural, political and women’s issues. She died on May 21st 2002.<\/p>\n

That species of dry facts and lists of her creations and accomplishments you can find all over the internet – or even in books if you’re that way inclined – but in Niki de Saint Phalle: The Garden of Secrets <\/strong>graphic collaborators Dominique Osuch & Sandrine Martin unpick their subject’s torrid and too-often turbulent life through a procession of dreamy childlike chapter-plays and vignettes divided into the major arcana of the Tarot that so fascinated Niki.<\/p>\n

French writer, artist and graphic novelist Dominique Osuch (Amours fragiles<\/em><\/strong>, Les Cinq de Cambridge<\/em><\/strong>, Tomo\u00c3\u00ab<\/em><\/strong>) was born in 1962. She and took a literary degree in 1980 and an Illustration qualification from l’\u00c3\u2030cole Sup\u00c3\u00a9rieure des Arts D\u00c3\u00a9coratifs de Strasbourg four years later.<\/p>\n

The script she provides for this mesmerising biographical account captures the raw relentless wonderment of a woman who always viewed the world with open-minded eyes but still sought to make it a better place\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Sandrine Martin also illustrates children’s books. She graduated from l’Ecole Nationale Sup\u00c3\u00a9rieure des Arts Decoratifs, Paris in 2004 and began selling illustrations to Le Monde<\/em><\/strong>, Lib\u00c3\u00a9ration<\/em><\/strong>, Psychologies Magazine<\/em><\/strong>, Bayard<\/em><\/strong> and Gallimard<\/em><\/strong> as well as creating short stories for comics magazine Lapin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2012 she released a collection of her artwork entitled La Montagne de sucre<\/em><\/strong> and after completing the biography I’m plugging here released a book of illustrated short stories entitled Petites Niaiseuses<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A child conflicted and shaped by abuse, neglect and a strict Catholic upbringing, Niki de Saint Phalle grew up in America and France during the Great Depression, married young and unwisely and, through broad and deep friendships and recurring life-threating physical maladies and mental illness, discovered her true calling was exploring existence through the making of art.<\/p>\n

She created towering monumental monoliths, whimsical parks, deviously themed art gardens and iconic soft and hard statuary venerating and exposing female form and functions. The tireless virtuoso and inveterate world traveller also collaborated with many of modern art’s greatest visionaries, wrote plays and made films to address and ameliorate her own childhood traumas. Whilst always championing and raising funds for the creation of galleries and exhibitions to bolster public health and wellbeing, Niki became one of the earliest advocates of AIDS Awareness, creating a book intellectually targeted at her young son which forthrightly explained the situation. It was released to great acclaim and success worldwide.<\/p>\n

In the same vein, she also designed colourful artistic condoms that people would be eager to wear\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This book – which also offers additional material such as a succinct yet detailed Chronology<\/em>, Suggested Further Reading<\/em> and Creator Biographies<\/em> – is a loving and extremely enticing celebration of one of the most important female artists of all time: a champion of innovation, modern technology, timeless sensuality and unbridled honest emotion. How can you not enjoy this superb introduction to a truly unique example of humanity at its most fundamentally alive?<\/p>\n

Trust me, you can’t.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2014 Casterman. \u00c2\u00a9 2018 NBM for the English translation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dominique Osuch & Sandrine Martin, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM) ISBN: 978-1-68112-158-1 NBM’s magnificent line of European-created modern biographies always offers a treasure-trove of potent wonderment and this latest luxury hardcover release (also available in all eBook formats) is arguably one of the most beguiling graphic releases of the year. Catherine-Marie-Agn\u00c3\u00a8s Fal de Saint … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Niki de Saint Phalle: The Garden of Secrets”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,115,63,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-books","category-biography","category-european-classics","category-older-kids"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4N2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}