Niki de Saint Phalle and the Tarot Garden

Inspired by Antoni Gaudí's Parc Güell in Barcelona and the mannerist Bomarzo Park, Niki de Saint Phalle created her sculpture park in Garavicchio, in the southernmost part of Tuscany. In this vast garden, the 22 cards of the tarot's Major Arcana are represented in the form of enormous sculptures, 12 to 15 metres high, made of painted polyester and reinforced concrete, and covered in mosaics, mirrors, multicoloured ceramics and coloured Murano glass. At the end of the 1970s, after her Nouveau Réalisme years of revolt and the more feminist period of the "Nanas," Niki de Saint Phalle created the fairy world of her Tarot Garden at Garavicchio. This enchanted world was, for her, the ultimate achievement of her oeuvre, its culmination. When she died in 2002, she left the Tarot Garden uncompleted. This monograph, which Niki de Saint Phalle herself planned and for which she chose the pictures, is the first comprehensive study of the Tarot Garden. It provides a unique glimpse into her creative process.