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Alchemy in Color: Niki de Saint Phalle’s Mythologie Transforms Paris This Summer

Alchemy in Color: Niki de Saint Phalle’s Mythologie Transforms Paris This Summer May 6, 2025Art Events, Paris0 Comments

Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Mythologie” at Galerie Mitterrand: Where the Archetypes Dance Again
by Shari Inessa for WHAT WE ADORE Magazine

In Paris, myth takes form. Not in books, but in color-soaked sculptures, serpents cast in joy, and monumental dreams made tangible. The Galerie Mitterrand, ever a temple of daring brilliance, opens its doors this June to Mythologie, an enthralling exhibition of Niki de Saint Phalle’s most symbolic and transcendent works — a vivid dive into the fantastical universe of one of the 20th century’s most magnetic artistic figures.

This is not just an exhibition. It’s a pilgrimage into the subconscious.

From her iconic Nanas to mythological beasts and surreal hybrids, Saint Phalle’s creatures are not merely creations — they are keepers of archetypes, refracted through her personal mythology. The serpent, in particular, coils through her work like a thread of memory and metamorphosis — feared, revered, and ultimately reimagined as a force of renewal. “I was born terrified of snakes,” she once confessed, “but in sculpting them, I transformed fear into joy.” That is perhaps her greatest magic: transmutation.

Spanning from the 1960s to the 2000s, Mythologie is a rich tapestry of spiritual play, feminine power, and psychological alchemy. Through references to ancient Greek, Egyptian, Christian, and esoteric lore, Saint Phalle doesn’t simply borrow mythology — she bends it, reshapes it, and gives it voice in color and chaos and form. These myths aren’t frozen in marble. They are alive, irreverent, and deeply feminine.

Among the marvels on display are model versions of works from her breathtaking Jardin des Tarots in Tuscany — 22 monumental sculptures created between 1979 and 1993 that embody the major arcana of the Tarot de Marseille. From The Hanged Man to Adam and Eve, these pieces are totems of Saint Phalle’s personal cosmology — dazzling with mosaic, mischief, and mysticism.

But beyond the spectacle lies a woman who used art not just to express, but to survive — to rebuild a world where play heals trauma, where femininity is riotous and powerful, and where myth becomes both mirror and weapon.

This summer, step into the world of Mythologie. It is luminous. It is subversive. It is timeless. And above all, it is Niki.

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