The exhibition Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hultén, on view at the Galeries Nationales of the Grand Palais, marks one of the first major events following the restoration and gradual reopening of the monumental Parisian complex, which had been closed since 2021 for extensive renovation work. The show celebrates the artistic and personal bond between Franco-American sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle and Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, retracing their most emblematic creations and their playful, critical and revolutionary approach, closely aligned with the ideas of Nouveau Réalisme. Niki’s famous Nanas, Tinguely’s kinetic machines, and installations such as Le Crocodrome de Zig & Puce or the Stravinsky Fountain are part of an immersive narrative, enriched with lesser-known works, historical footage, and unpublished documents. At the heart of the exhibition stands the figure of Pontus Hultén, the first director of the Centre Pompidou and a key advocate for both artists. He supported them through major retrospectives, museum acquisitions and public projects that helped bring their visions to a wider audience. The exhibition includes international loans and archival materials that reveal not only the works but also the deep relationship that united Niki and Jean, filled with complicity, affection, and creative tension. It offers a renewed perspective on the participatory and subversive art of the second half of the twentieth century, returning to the public a universe of colour, mechanisms, irony and poetry, where machine and body, activism and imagination intertwine without boundaries.
