The Devouring mothers by Niki de Saint Phalle
- #the story behind#
The original edition of this book by Niki de Saint Phalle in 1970, was first published to accompany the exhibition devoted to her work at the Gimpel Fils Gallery in London in 1972. Printed in lithography in a limited number of copies, this story book is now almost impossible to find.
The Devouring Mothers (Les Mères voraces) adopts the codes of the children's picture book: a small format, a single (seemingly) simple and naïve visual on each page, solid colors.... But behind these color-saturated drawings, which blend reality and fantasy, Niki de Saint Phalle exorcises the traumas of childhood, between a frivolous, incestuous father and a domineering, possessive mother. The characters in the 1972 exhibition, like those in the book, are no longer the cheerful Nanas she created earlier: Niki de Saint Phalle explains this change of direction by referring to the psychoanalytic notion of the "bad mother": "In other words, I've already represented the 'good mothers', with the Nanas, but now I'm devoting myself to their antithesis, to that mother you wouldn't like to be".
- #details#
Éditions de l'Amateur / Jnf Éditions, 2014
ISBN: 978-2-85917-544-3
64 pages
14 x 16.5 cm
Édition bilingue français / anglais
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