Vogue 1971. Portrait of artist Niki de Saint-Phalle painting one of her large Nanas sculptures in her studio outside Paris. (Photo by Jack Nisberg/Condé Nast via Getty Images)
“Very early on I decided to become a heroine,” said artist, filmmaker, and feminist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002). “What did it matter who I would be? The main thing was that it had to be difficult, grandiose, exciting.
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De Saint Phalle shaped her destiny from a young age after realizing those closest to her would destroy her if they could. Physically abused by her mother and sexually abused by her father as a child, de Saint Phalle refused to become a victim of the petty bourgeois who raised her to be a housewife and mother.
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“I could not identify with Mother, our grandmothers, our aunts, or Mother’s friends. Their territory seemed too restrictive for my taste,” de Saint Phalle said. “I want the world that belonged to men… Very early I got the message that men had the power and I wanted it. Yes, I would steal their fire from them.”
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Niki de Saint Phalle (kneeling) by Dennis Hopper, 1963