Tympanum by Niki de Saint Phalle

Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint-Phalle was know from childhood as Niki. She was born near Paris but her family moved to the USA. She worked briefly as a model, before eloping at the age of eighteen with Henry Matthews, a US marine and aspiring musician and poet. While he studied at Harvard, she began her first paintings. They moved to Paris and then travelled in Europe, but in 1953 she suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of struggling with the conflicting demands of a family and her own artistic freedom. By 1961 she had left her husband and children to concentrate on her art. In 1993 she had a solo exhibition at the McLellan Galleries, Glasgow. Her work is represented in major public and private collections throughout the world.