Tarot Garden by Niki de St Phalle
Verfasst von Elisa Simon, Frankreich
Pescia Fiorentina Capalbio, Garavicchio de Pescia Fiorentina, Italien
flikr.com / nicoladiaz
Niki de St Phalle is one of the famous contemporary artist. She was born in France in 1930. Her family was come from America and she hadn’got an easy childhood, When she became an adult, she had a nervous breakdown and she was hospitalized in a psychiatric center. Then, she began to paint and to sculpt and little by little, the art became a kind of therapy for her.
Niki de St Phalle is wellknown for her colored sculptures called the Nanas, very big women with a lot of patterns which glorify the modern and free women. She also made many other sculptures all around the wolrd such as the Stravinsky Fountain next to the Pompidou Center in Paris.
The Tarot Garden or Il Gardino dei Tarocchi in italian is one of her last works. It is localized in Toscany [Italy]. She started this monumental work in 1979, it was finished in 1993 but it was open for the public just in 1998. This is a fabulous and dreamlike place which presents 22 figures of tarot [divinatory cards game used by the fortune tellers] with huge and colored sculptures. Some of them measures 15 meters. They were made by Niki de St Phalle, her husband Jean Tinguely also an artist and some workers. The sculptures are covered with mosaic and precious glass. Some of them look like houses and Niki de St Phalle and her husband lived into one during the construction of the garden.
The Tarot Garden is the realization of Niki de St Phalle’s dreams. I’ve speak about this place because I’ve seen an exhibition about her and there were a lot of mock-ups of these sculptures and I found that very interesting und funny. We can visit this mysterious place today [it is free a few days during the year] and we can see and enter in these funny and playful sculptures.
Niki de St Phalle is one of the famous contemporary artist. She was born in France in 1930. Her family was come from America and she hadn’got an easy childhood, When she became an adult, she had a nervous breakdown and she was hospitalized in a psychiatric center. Then, she began to paint and to sculpt and little by little, the art became a kind of therapy for her.
Niki de St Phalle is wellknown for her colored sculptures called the Nanas, very big women with a lot of patterns which glorify the modern and free women. She also made many other sculptures all around the wolrd such as the Stravinsky Fountain next to the Pompidou Center in Paris.
The Tarot Garden or Il Gardino dei Tarocchi in italian is one of her last works. It is localized in Toscany [Italy]. She started this monumental work in 1979, it was finished in 1993 but it was open for the public just in 1998. This is a fabulous and dreamlike place which presents 22 figures of tarot [divinatory cards game used by the fortune tellers] with huge and colored sculptures. Some of them measures 15 meters. They were made by Niki de St Phalle, her husband Jean Tinguely also an artist and some workers. The sculptures are covered with mosaic and precious glass. Some of them look like houses and Niki de St Phalle and her husband lived into one during the construction of the garden.
The Tarot Garden is the realization of Niki de St Phalle’s dreams. I’ve speak about this place because I’ve seen an exhibition about her and there were a lot of mock-ups of these sculptures and I found that very interesting und funny. We can visit this mysterious place today [it is free a few days during the year] and we can see and enter in these funny and playful sculptures.
flikr.com Thomas M. Zimmermann