Watch Out For Those Three - Paris: Original Exhibition At The Grand Palais

The exhibition tells the creative alliance between Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Pontus Hulten

Throughout art history, the dialogue between visionary artists, critics, and enlightened museums has sparked cultural revolutions. It is from these alliances, marked by boldness and creative complicity, that artworks and movements destined to leave a lasting mark are often born. Since its founding, fostering the avantgarde and utopia has been the mission of the Centre Pompidou. In 2025, the museum will begin its transformation, closing the doors of its iconic Parisian building for renovations scheduled to be completed by 2030. However, its mission continues elsewhere through the En constellation program: a wide-ranging plan of projects across France and around the world. One of the key locations in this transitional phase is the Grand Palais. Here, the exhibition “Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten” comes to life, running until January 4, 2026. It tells the story of the creative alliance between two major 20th-century French artists, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) and Jean Tinguely (1925–1991), with Pontus Hulten (1924–2006), the first director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou.
 

The show intertwines art, friendship, love between the two artists and the utopian and provocative nature of their creations

The exhibition weaves together art, friendship, love between the two artists, and their commitment, highlighting the utopian and provocative dimensions of the art embraced by all three. From 1977 to 1981, Pontus Hulten offered unwavering support to the artist duo, facilitating the acquisition of key works and organizing major retrospectives at the Centre Pompidou: Saint Phalle’s in 1980 and Tinguely’s in 1988. The three shared a multidisciplinary and participatory vision of art, where institutional critique and direct engagement with the public were fundamental to the creative process.

Pontus Hulten, director of the Pompidou from 1977 to 1981, offers unconditional support to the couple

Jean Tinguely’s animated, selfdestructive, and useless machines offer a sharp critique of mechanization and technological progress. Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tirs - white reliefs containing pockets of color that the artist shot at to “make the painting bleed” - subvert the codes of both art and society. Her famous Nanas, colorful and joyful, further affirm her iconoclastic approach. The collaboration with the Centre Pompidou led to the creation of works such as Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce (1977) and the Stravinsky Fountain (1983), commissioned by the City of Paris and still located next to the museum today. This fruitful collaboration made possible the creation of monumental works like the Cyclop, a metal monster hidde in the forests of Milly-la-Forêt near Paris, and the Giardino dei tarocchi in Capalbio, Italy, created between 1979 and 1993, a symbolic path where the artists’ works engage with nature through an esoteric language.

 From these collaborations come monumental works like The Cyclop in the woods of Millyla-Forêt and the Giardino dei tarocchi in Capalbio