Niki de SAINT PHALLE - Sur la Plage I, 1999 - Silkscreen

Niki de Saint Phalle : (1930-2002), is a french painter, sculptor and film director. She was one of the first female artist to know fame while alive, in the beginning of the 1960's. She was a self-taught woman, and she was largely inspired by outsider art. She was part of the Nouveaux Réalistes with Gérard Deschamps, César, Mimmo Rotella, Christo and Yves Klein. She was married to the swiss artist Jean Tinguely with whom she worked and produced important works such as the Stravinsky fountain in Paris or the Cyclop in Milly la forêt. During the 1960's she is noticed for her series of "Shoots" (performance in which she shoots color-filled bullets on religious altars), and of course for her "Nanas" (chicks).
Screen print : Screen printing, also known as silkscreen, serigraphy, and serigraph printing - from latin "Sericum (silk) and greek "grapheion" (writing) - is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image into a substrate. It is possible to use different meshes, for different colors, and create multi-colored works. In the field of art, it is important to know how many prints have been made. The total number of prints is usually written on the print (e.g 20/200).