Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten
Exhibition
June 26 2025 – January 4 2026
Grand Palais | Galleries 3 and 4
Press release
Niki Charitable Art Foundation, Santee, Californie -
© 2025 Niki Charitable Art Foundation / Adagp, Paris
Niki de Saint Phalle (1930−2002) and Jean Tinguely (1925−1991) marked Centre Pompidou’s first decades with such spectacular work as Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce (1977) in the Forum of the building, and Fontaine Stravinsky (1983) at the foot of the Ircam. This exhibition − which inaugurates the collaboration between Centre Pompidou and the GrandPalaisRmn during the closure of the ”Beaubourg” site for renovation − highlights the key moments in the career of this legendary couple united by unfailing artistic ties and a vision of art as an act of rebellion against the established norms.
The exhibition looks back over Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s creations through the prism of Pontus Hulten (1924−2006), the first director of the Musée national d’art moderne at Centre Pompidou from 1977 to 1981. Thanks to the impetus given by this major who was quickly remarked in the museum world, the two artists enjoyed a high profile. Hulten was inspired by Rimbaud’s imperative to “change life” and driven by a radical and innovative museum approach, and he afforded this couple of artists unconditional support. He shared their anarchistic conceptions at the service of an art for all that was multi-disciplinary and participatory, shaking up conventions and retracing the lines.
Pontus Hulten promoted the acquisition of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s works by institutions and organised retrospectives of both artists at Centre Pompidou : one of Saint Phalle in 1980 and one of Tinguely in 1988. He also orchestrated the creation of their monumental installations such as Hon – en katedral (1966), the giant penetrable Nana at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the first institution he directed, and Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce (1977), with its fairground features at Centre Pompidou in Paris. It was also thanks to Pontus Hulten that Niki de Saint Phalle completed Jean Tinguely’s life’s work after his death: Le Cyclop, a visitable metal monster that features works by artist friends, hidden in the woods of Milly-la-Forêt, near Paris.
The “Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten” exhibition offers a historic and entertaining tour in which art, love, friendship and commitment intertwine, while highlighting the utopian ideas and values of artistic provocation shared by all three figures.
The rich collections of Centre Pompidou, combined with major loans from national and international institutions, allow visitors to discover or rediscover emblematic works by both artists. Tinguely’s animated machines that were, to varying degrees, self-destructive and “useless”, are a trenchant critique of the mechanisation and technological progress of the industrial society of the post-war boom. Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tirs - white reliefs containing bags of coloured paint which she shot at to “make the painting bleed” - overturned the codes of both art and society while highlighting female power. Her famous Nanas full of joy and colour echo this iconoclastic approach. The exhibition also features rare archive footage and correspondence in the form of letters and drawings in connection with Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s monumental works and projects, carried out with the complicity of Pontus Hulten.
In addition to celebrating two major artists of the 20th century, who were encouraged by the vision of an exceptional figure of the world of museums, this exhibition questions the horizon of their thought, in which the call for the autonomy of art, questioning of the institution and direct address to the public became drivers of creation.
2025 marks the centenary of Jean Tinguely’s birth.
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Press officer:
Marine Prévot
marine.prevot@centrepompidou.fr
Department of communications and digital media
Director
Geneviève Paire
Head of the press office
Dorothée Mireux
