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Artist or Maker: Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002)
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Provenance: Galerie Iolas, Paris.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1969.
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Exhibited: Hannover, Künstlerhaus, Niki de Saint-Phalle Werke 1962-1968, 1969, no. 39.
Munich, Galerie Stangl, Plastiken, Zeichnungen und Graphiken, 1969, no. 14.
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Literature: Kieler Nachrichten, 4 March 1969.
N. Sundell, The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection 1958-1979, Baltimore 1980 (illustrated in colour, p. 62).
L. Foldes, Seleçóes di Reader's Digest, 1989 (illustrated, p. 48).
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Notes: Property from an American Collection
Bright, bold and brash, Péril jaune is an unusual monument that is filled with colour and, importantly, with humour. Compared to the dour figures that litter the plinths and pedestals of so many public spaces, commemorating the authority figures of yore, Péril jaune is a breath of wild fresh air and activity. And when compared to the ornamental figures of nymphs, angels and various personifications, the old straight-jacket-like concepts of grace and elegance fall away, banished by the pure vivacity and immediacy of the leaping, ball-playing Péril jaune.
Executed in 1968, this sculpture dates from the early years of Niki de Saint Phalle's iconic Nanas. These are curvaceous and entertaining figures that are packed with femininity. The colours and the curves are themselves an assault on the staid and rigid conventional depictions that characterised so many of the sculptures of-- and importantly by-- men. Péril jaune is sensuous in her curves, but is expressly not the object of the male gaze or male desire. In Péril jaune, this attack on the art of men is made all the more explicit through the apparent reference to the Dinard paintings of that towering behemoth of modern art, Pablo Picasso.
Péril jaune is, in many ways, far from perilous. It is less an attack on the art of men than a celebration of woman, an exuberant explosion of activity, colour and kitsch that reminds the viewer that art can be fun. The term 'nana', which was applied as a title to several of the sister-works of Péril jaune, had long held hints of the pejorative, but Saint Phalle took the word and embraced it and revolutionised it and turned it against its former users. Her Nanas are figures of enthusiasm, of sensuality, of life and vibrancy. They are strange, crazy figureheads for a more modern and enlightened age.
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
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