Book Review | Niki De Saint Phalle And The Tarot Garden

Text by Jill Johnston 
& Marella Caracciolo Chia, Photos by Guilo Pietromarchi

Published by Benteli  RRP approx £40.00

Driving along the Via Aurelia under a baking Italian sky, you may catch a glimpse of brightly coloured shapes glittering amongst the olive trees and wonder whether a pleasure garden or a theme park lies in the dark Tuscan wood.

Actually, it’s a combination of both – a fabulous sculpture garden by artist Niki De Saint Phalle. The artist’s theme? The archetypes of the Major Arcana.

This 23 year-long project started work in the late 1970s, but truthfully, she had been building it in her imagination since 1955 when she first saw Antoni Gaudi’s Park Guell in Barcelona. She said: ‘That day I met my destiny. It changed my life. I felt like Saint Paul who had seen the light! It was clear….that I too was meant to build a garden of joy.’

Year upon year, brick upon brick, mirror upon mirror, the characters of the Major Arcana slowly took shape and blossomed upon the hillside at Capalbio. Fashioned in re-inforced concrete, decorated with brilliantly hued hand-fired tiles, the Empress and her fellow archetypes absolutely rule this small rocky hillside.

Benteli's 250 page book is packed with colour and black & white plates showing the development of Niki’s concepts from drawings on the page right through to gleaming, glittering mirrored icons.

This is not really a biography of the artist – although there are tantalising biographical glimpses that illustrate her reasoning, her choices and her outlook on life.  There are many books (and posters) about Niki available from on-line book stores (no names, no pack drill, but you know the one I mean!)

I confess that I didn’t immediately recognise a few of the archetypes – Niki was an artist and takes artist’s freedoms with the traditional imagery of the Tarot (for example, the Magician is stripped back to a head and a heaven-pointing hand….and sits square on top of the High Priestess!) – but the book’s commentary helps unravel her creative processes.

Saint Phalle did not work alone. As well as a team of craftsmen, she worked closely with her soul mate and ex husband Jean Tinguely.  The book gives an impression of not so much a team effort to create this garden, but a family effort.  The Tarot Garden was completed in 2003, a year after the artist died.

This is the perfect book for any Tarot-lover in your life. Equally, anyone with a penchant for Gaudi-inspired artwork would adore it.

I would suggest that the perfect partner for this book is a couple of air tickets to Italy to see The Tarot Garden for yourselves!  If you can't fly there, why not visit The Tarot Garden website instead:

http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/

You can buy the book here