Saint Phalle, Niki de

Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle was born on October 29, 1930, in France, into a strict Catholic French family. In 1933, she moved with her parents to New York but returned to Europe in 1951. In 1953, she decided to dedicate her life to art. She was a self-taught painter and sculptor, and one of the most important and unconventional female artists of the 20th century. In 1965, she created her first Nanas, made of papier-mâché and wire mesh. With these voluptuous female figures, she would firmly establish her name. In the early 1970s, Niki began creating jewelry, in collaboration with GianCarlo Montebello. The jewellery designs were extremely difficult to execute and required the most skilled craftsmen; perfecting them could take months.