Niki de Saint Phalle

Her struggle against structures that prevent women's self-determination, especially over their own bodies, is illuminated over four decades. Her famous shooting paintings, female figures, happenings, and films are shown, as well as models of large sculptures in landscapes. Her artistic environment and collaborations with Jean Tinguely or Robert Rauschenberg are also examined, as are comparisons with her female contemporaries, including Yayoi Kusama, Dorothy Iannone, and Alina Szapocznikow. Niki de Saint Phalle's social explosive power and her simultaneous longing for harmonization created an ambivalent body of work that made the French-American artist famous during her lifetime and continues to gain relevance today.

The DREAM MACHINE exhibition, featuring more than 100 works, is a collaboration with the Nationalmuseum in Wrocław and in close cooperation with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation San Diego and the Sprengel Museum Hannover.

Curator: Heike van den Valentyn