Swiss prestige skincare house La Prairie is sponsoring the ‘Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life’ exhibition to mark International Women’s Day (8 March).
The retrospective will be held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA PS1) in New York City from 11 March to 6 September 2021. It will feature over 200 of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s works — including sculptures, prints, drawings, jewellery and archival materials — covering the multi-media artist’s career from the 1970s until her death in 2002.
Niki de Saint Phalle was an avant-garde feminist artist. She is known for her interdisciplinary approach and for using art as commentary on various social and political issues, particularly women’s rights. The exhibition at MoMA PS1 will showcase the subversive and provocative nature of her work, particularly her role as a key figure in the nouveau realism movement.
According to La Prairie, the exhibit honours Saint Phalle’s ‘audacious and visionary feminist spirit,’ and underlines the brand’s commitment to supporting the arts community. The skincare house has existing partnerships with Art Basel, West Bund Art & Design and the Foundation Beyeler in Switzerland.
La Prairie Chief Marketing Officer Greg Prodromides commented, “This collaboration with MoMA PS1 is a meaningful opportunity for us to share Niki’s philosophy with the world and associate her pioneering, persevering strong and feminist spirit with La Prairie. We are particularly proud to be able to support the life, oeuvre and cultural legacy of an artist that we consider to be a pivotal encounter for our House.”
La Prairie Founder Dr. Paul Niehans was an avid supporter of arts and Niki De Saint Phalle’s work holds a particular resonance with the brand. Cobalt blue was Niki de Saint Phalle’s favourite colour. In 1982, La Prairie encountered the colour in a shared design studio in New York where Saint Phalle was developing her eponymous fragrance.
The occasion would lead to a lasting bond between the skincare house and the artist. It also inspired the cobalt blue colour of La Prairie’s signature Skin Caviar line, which the brand still uses today.
“Niki de Saint Phalle created artwork that explicitly rejected patriarchal values and artistic convention,” said Exhibition Curator Ruba Katrib.
“Her Nanas [the artist’s brightly-coloured female sculptures] confront Western standards of femininity and decorum: they are brash, ecstatic, and embrace sexuality. She created her Nanas at such a large scale specifically so that they could dominate – literally tower over – men. Saint Phalle was also an iconoclast in her personal style and way of life.”
