Friday 28 October 2016

Nana

"Nana TĂȘte de Fleurs" 1971
This exuberant scene could be on your wall for it is a postcard of wallpaper (the background is rather more on the pink spectrum than the scan shows).  The designer is Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), sculptor and painter who from 1964/5 onward produced a playful series of brightly coloured sculptures called Nana (French slang for girl or chick). These larger than life voluptuous and often athletic women play and enjoy life. On the wallpaper a girl with a head of flowers dances on a sunny day.  Niki de Saint Phalle alongside her art produced, flower vases, jewelry and  a fragrance whose bottle featured blue gold butterflies and a logo of entwined serpents.  Some of these objects were created to raise funds for her big and expensive project The Tarot Garden (inspired by the architecture of Antionio Gaudi which she saw when visiting Spain),  She started to create the Tarot Garden in the late 1970s on 14 acres of land in Tuscany, one of the people that got involved in the project was the local postman, Ugo Celletti,  who discovered a passion for mosaic work, the consequence of which that the locals often didn't get their post on time.  After her death Ugo helped maintain the garden now two of his nephews act as caretakers and thousands of people visit this corner of Italy each year.    (The New Yorker featured her story this year in Beautiful Monsters. Art and Obsession in Tuscany)

Postcards for the Weekend is "Anything you wish" joining the Linky Party at Connections to the World

6 comments:

DawnTreader said...

Sometimes one learns a lot from a postcard!!! :)

Unknown said...

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Maria said...

How interesting! Thanks for sharing Joy! I'm sad that nowadays, most voluptuous and often athletic women find it difficult to play and enjoy life due to expectations that to be chick, you have to be anorexic!

Mail Adventures said...

I think I had seen these designs in other places, but I don't remember where...

Scriptor Senex said...

I didn't realise that Nana was French slang - I do like learning new things thanks to postcards!

John's Island said...

Interesting selection, nice card. I like all the background info too. Thanks for sharing and for linking up with Postcards for the Weekend.