Born Catherine Marie-Agnés Fal de Saint Phalle in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy suburb of Paris, in October, 1930. Died in San Diego, California, on May 21, 2002. Model for Vogue, Life, Elle, and others; mixed-media artist, painter, sculptor and filmmaker, Niki de Saint Phalle started out as a chanteuse. She received no formal art training, but began painting in 1952. In 1961, she joined the Nouveaux Réalistes group, and she married the artist Jean Tinguely in 1971. She is best known for her series, such as Les Tirs, (The Shooting Paintings) and the Nanas, (Everywoman), the Igor Stravinsky Fountain near the Pompidou Center in Paris, and her Tarot Garden, in Capalbio, Tuscany.

Born in 1930 and died in May, 2002, model for Vogue, Life, Elle and more, mixed-media artist, painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, Niki de Saint Phalle received no formal art training, but began painting in 1952. Best known for the Igor Stravinsky Fountain near the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Tarot Garden in Capalbio, Tuscany; married the artist Jean Tinguely in 1971, she remains a discreet figure who this biography aims to bring to the attention of a wider public.

A retrospective of Niki de Saint Phalle’s work will be held at the Grand Palais (Paris) from October 8, 2014 to January 18, 2015.

There are no other biographies of Niki de de Saint Phalle currently available in paperback. The other books about her – art criticism and catalogues raisonnés – focus more on her work than on her life.