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Vogue
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Vogue
The Kinetic Force of Art World Couple Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely Comes to Life in Somerset
We considered Hauser & Wirth in Menorca, but the team insisted on Somerset—somewhere I had never been! But I trusted the professionals. When I arrived, I was shocked at how on point it was. Jean and Niki moved out of the city early on and worked in barns. They loved the rural life. It felt very beautifully British, but also meant to be. Jean Tinguely, La Grande Tête (The Big Head), 1988. Photo: Ken Adlard, courtesy of Niki Charitable Art Foundation and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Ken Adlard, courtesy of the artists and Hauser & Wirth I had such a visceral reaction to seeing the exhibition. The gorgeous gardens, the curation. You start with Tinguely's moving kinetic machines, then you move to Niki's stark and solemn shooting pictures, then you look out the window and see the Nana sculptures in the gardens. I think it's beautifully curated. I'm thankful this is happening right now, before the big exhibition in Paris, where we see Tinguely, Niki, Pontus Hultén…all artistic friends. Then we're opening an exhibition for Jean's centennial in Geneva. You see the real scope of both of their work. In Somerset, we have their very intimate correspondence on display. You see their love, humor, and generosity. In the Somerset gardens, they get the fountains on and children run through the water with the Nanas. I was fortunate enough to be a kid around Niki and Jean, so I truly got to understand the magic of their work. I think it's wonderful to get people young to understand art, and see that art is a part of life. How did you even begin to distill the scope of their work? For Niki in particular—from the shooting paintings to the Nanas—the range in form and storytelling is so vast. I think it's really always important to tell stories, or at least to create a path so that people can create their own stories. We show all these different creative languages that they used both together and separately—from imagery to cinema, to moving machines, and the fountain. I think it's wonderful to blur the boundaries between public and private art in this exhibition, and that's actually very rare. And while this show is so much about joy and humor and providing a bit of a solace from the darkness of the world, the heavy subjects are there—but in a poetic way. Installation view. Photo: Ken Adlard, courtesy of the artists and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Courtesy Hauser & With and the artists I think that's the beauty of their work: there are converging and contradicting ideas. I love that you can see how intensely they collaborated, but also the real delineations between them. You would maybe think, as a couple, that they would have mirrored each other more. Instead, they have a singular sense of artistic identity.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Eugenie tells of delight at becoming mentor to changemakers at King's charity
Princess Eugenie has expressed her delight at becoming a mentor for The King's Foundation's new 35 under 35 network of changemakers. The late Queen's granddaughter praised the selection of young creatives for their 'outstanding work in areas the King is passionate about'. Charles's niece Eugenie visited the Garrison Chapel, the London exhibition space of the monarch's charity, last week to meet some of the group. The 35 under 35 have been brought together in the foundation's 35th anniversary year to promote the change the King wants to see globally across sustainability, traditional crafts and the arts. Eugenie's new role for the King's charity emerged last week and the princess, who is a director at Hauser & Wirth contemporary gallery, said she was looking forward to sharing her passion for art. The princess said: 'I'm delighted to be working with this group of exceptional young people who have been selected thanks to their outstanding work in areas the King is passionate about. 'Given I recently celebrated my 35th birthday, it's fitting to take part in the charity's 35th anniversary celebrations and share my passion for art with the 35 under 35.' Other mentors include designer Samuel Ross, artist and influencer Sophie Tea Art, and historian Alice Loxton, who has millions of followers on social media as @history_alice. The list of 35 under 35 includes woodworker Eli Baxter, embroiderer Angelica Ellis, basketmaker Florence Hamer, stonemason Freya de Lisle, milliner Barnaby Horn, painter Jo Rance, and environmental filmmaker Jack Harries. This week, Eugenie was specially invited to the Buckingham Palace garden party by the Prince and Princess of Wales, after they requested she and Zara Tindall accompany them.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Princess Eugenie stuns at changemakers event after revealing she was 'so unwell she couldn't leave bed'
Princess Eugenie looked effortlessly elegant as she stepped out at London 's Garrison Chapel last week. The late Queen's granddaughter wore a deep navy blue canvas dress paired with delicate kitten heels and a simple gold pendant necklace. Eugenie was there on official duty - meeting a cohort of creatives handpicked by The King's Foundation as part of its new 35 under 35 initiative. The royal, who recently turned 35 herself, was named a mentor for the Foundation's new network of young changemakers - a group recognised for their outstanding work in sustainability, traditional craftsmanship and the arts, all causes close to King Charles 's heart. Eugenie, who works as a director at the Hauser & Wirth contemporary art gallery, beamed as she met with woodworkers, stonemasons and environmental filmmakers selected for their impact and innovation. 'I'm delighted to be working with this group of exceptional young people who have been selected thanks to their outstanding work in areas the King is passionate about,' she said. 'Given I recently celebrated my 35th birthday, it's fitting to take part in the charity's 35th anniversary celebrations and share my passion for art with the 35 under 35.' The initiative marks a new chapter in Eugenie's increasing involvement in royal charity work, one that reflects her own interests and experiences. Other mentors for the programme include designer Samuel Ross, social media historian Alice Loxton and artist and influencer Sophie Tea. Among those selected for the prestigious list are basketmaker Florence Hamer, embroiderer Angelica Ellis, milliner Barnaby Horn and climate advocate and filmmaker Jack Harries. Eugenie's support for creativity and craftsmanship is well documented, but her advocacy extends far beyond the arts. Last week, the princess gave a rare and deeply personal interview in which she spoke movingly about her experience with scoliosis - a condition that has shaped much of her life and inspired her ongoing charity work. At just 12 years old, Eugenie underwent an eight-hour operation to correct the curvature of her spine. Surgeons inserted two eight-inch titanium rods and screws into her back, leaving a prominent scar that she now wears as a 'badge of honour.' 'I felt very embarrassed about the whole thing,' she told The Telegraph. 'I remember pulling my blanket over my head before surgery and saying, 'I don't want to see anyone and I don't want them to see me.' Following the procedure at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, north-west London, Eugenie spent ten days confined to bed, followed by weeks in a wheelchair. At the time, spinal surgery patients were kept entirely indoors - a memory she still carries. 'I had a corner room with two windows looking out over a car park. I remember watching someone waving to my red-haired nurse and having this feeling that I couldn't reach them.' Now, as a mother of two, she admits those memories have taken on a new poignancy. Her mother, Sarah Ferguson, played a pivotal role in reshaping her daughter's perspective on her scar. 'She'd ask if she could show it to people, then she'd turn me around and say, "My daughter is superhuman. You've got to check out her scar." Suddenly, it became something positive. A part of me.' Eugenie is now a vocal supporter of Horatio's Garden, a charity working to create healing outdoor spaces for spinal injury patients - a cause she says is close to her heart. The charity aims to reach every spinal injuries unit in the UK, a mission which the Princess feels is of vital importance. Her royal diary has been filling up fast: Eugenie also made a special appearance at the Buckingham Palace garden party this week, where she was personally invited to attend by the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely review – joyous show from art's golden kinetic couple
It is a bright and sunny day in Somerset, and out on the neatly mown lawn at Hauser & Wirth, Niki de Saint Phalle's voluptuous Nanas ('girls') are positively sparkling. There are three of them (a nod to Botticelli's three graces): one silver, one black, one white, all made from polyester jazzed up with colourful mosaic and shimmering mirrors. She has captured them mid-twirl, arms tossed in the air like they just don't care, legs kicked out at jaunty angles. They are joyful and radiant, monumental and robust, dancers and warriors. Saint Phalle, a French American artist, began creating her abstract sculptures of women in the mid-60s, a decade after she first met the Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely in Paris. He was married and so was she but five years later, both divorced, they got together; by the time they were married in 1971 both were seeing other people. It was a complicated, sometimes competitive relationship – romantically and artistically – that saw them collaborate and support each other creatively until Tinguely's death in 1991. Saint Phalle looked after his legacy until her own death in 2002. Now, on the centenary of his birth, a new exhibition is presenting their work side by side – at least once we get off the grass and into the gallery. As if to make up for the solo Saint Phalle welcome outside, the first room is almost entirely dedicated to Tinguely's strange kinetic sculptures – presided over by another powerful Saint Phalle belle. Having grown up in Basel, where he later worked as a window decorator and studied drawing, Tinguely moved to Paris in 1952 and began to animate his Calder-esque wire works with electric motors. Here, half-a-dozen contraptions made with scrap metal and found materials from branches to rubber belts stutter to life every few minutes, clanking and clattering in time with their moving parts. Originally visitors would have pressed buttons to make them move. Sadly, now they're old and rickety, they are programmed to turn on one by one (though apparently the rockers can be a bit erratic). Built from the 1950s until his death, Tinguely's whirring designs might verge on comic but they're as relevant today as they were when first exhibited. A physical (and audible) manifestation of the anxieties of automation, his semi-robotic assemblages – among them his Métamatics, or drawing machines – were initially met with resistance. At Hauser & Wirth, one device doodles in pen on to an unfurling roll of paper while another scribbles on a single sheet. Standing in front of them, questions inevitably arise about authenticity and the creative capabilities of man vs machine. Viewed alongside his angular scrap metal, Saint Phalle's sculptures are deliciously colourful and curvy. When viewed together, they hum with life. The couple began collaborating in the late 1950s; for her first sculpture, she commissioned him to create an iron armature which she covered with plaster. A black-and-white polyester head with a rosy pout sits on the shoulders of a motorised contraption made from wood and iron; when the motor starts, the head shifts back and forth, its lightbulb crown flashing. Elsewhere, a miniature nana performs an arabesque on an iron stand that spins her round like a ballerina in a jewellery box. On display for the first time are the gold pieces of furniture Saint Phalle made for A Dream Longer Than the Night (1976), the bizarre and frequently frightening film she wrote, directed and acted in with Tinguely. There's often a shadowy undercurrent, as well as strength in the face of adversity (in Saint Phalle's case, sexual abuse and a strict Catholic upbringing). It's there in the 11 roebuck skulls Tinguely fixed to a bicycle wheel in 1990, titled The Infernal Circle of Death. It's there in Saint Phalle's provocative plaster and bronze altarpieces, piled high with small plastic dolls which bring to mind the good and the damned imagined by Hieronymus Bosch. In 1961 she started her famous shooting paintings, firing a rifle at low reliefs and exploding bags of bleeding paint across the surface. Produced against a backdrop of political unrest in France, the three on display burst with rage and defiance. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion Despite their different backgrounds – she came from an aristocratic French family; he was working class – both were socially and politically engaged and tirelessly devoted to their art. The final room features intimate drawings and letters by Saint Phalle, with creatures real and imagined and a load of love hearts. Tinguely is here, too, his name squiggled in ink, a rusty chariot-like contraption supporting a Saint Phalle-style goddess Athena, sensuous and strong. And there, glimpsed through the window, are the three Nanas on the lawn, still twirling, still sparkling. It may be Tinguely's centenary but Saint Phalle is the star of this show – and the show is all the better for it. Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely: Myths & Machines is at Hauser & Wirth Somerset until 1 February
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Princess Eugenie to mentor King's young hopefuls on changing the world
Princess Eugenie is to mentor the King's pick of young creatives he hopes will promote change in the world over decades to come. The Princess, 35, met several of the 35 'changemakers' last week, including milliner Barnaby Horn, painter Jo Rance and knitwear designer Marie Bruhat. It is hoped that Prince Andrew's younger daughter, who is a director at Hauser & Wirth art gallery in Mayfair, will use her experience of the arts world to inspire and elevate their work. The King's Foundation last week announced its list of '35 under 35' who will act as charity ambassadors throughout its 35th anniversary year, flying the flag for the King's beloved heritage crafts and the environment. The group – which includes a composer, an architect, several climate activists and a sustainable florist – joined forces for the first time on Thursday evening at a launch event at the Garrison Chapel, the charity's central London base. Dame Ann Limb, chairman of the board, said the foundation had been 'surprised and overwhelmed' by the hundreds of applications from young people keen to align with the organisation and promote the King's belief that everything in nature is interconnected, including ourselves. 'As a woman in her 73rd year, I'd like to think this is the generation that will carry this on,' she said of their work. 'And the King will want that. 'What struck me was the diversity of skills and talents, and the scale of their ambition, which was quite breathtaking in its boldness.' 'A timely project' The King's Foundation was founded as the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture by the then Prince Charles in 1990. Six years earlier, the heir to the throne had famously described a proposed extension to the National Gallery extension as a 'monstrous carbuncle', prompting the design to be swiftly scrapped. Dame Ann suggested that the '35 under 35' scheme was a timely project that brought the King full circle. 'This has come at the right moment because in 1990, the Institute of Architecture was founded by a younger prince who had a moan about architecture at the National Gallery,' she said. 'Well, he, as the King now, and the Queen, have just been back to reopen that new extension of the National Gallery. And so times move on. And I think this has caught the mood for the next 35 years, because traditional skills, their reinvention and application is very much more in demand now than it was.' Laura Young, a climate scientist, said it was 'heartwarming' and 'encouraging' to know that climate change was part of the King's personal ethos. 'He doesn't just turn up to events, he really embeds in his own work,' she said. 'The recognition that there is a young generation full of ideas is the most exciting thing about this programme. 'It's lovely to look around the room and see fashion designers, florists, joiners, people who are doing sustainability in their own sphere being inspired by this initiative. And it's also great to connect, because it's the collaboration that makes the most impact. 'Tonight is the origin of something and it will be what we make of it. Just the name, the King's Foundation gives credibility, and unfortunately in today's world, you need a bit of that. It also opens doors.' Kristina Murrin, chief executive of the foundation, said that many of the courses run by the foundation were born out of a need to maintain skills that had all but disappeared, which in turn had inspired the search for 'the most exciting, the most energetic, the most inspiring' young people who would keep those skills alive. She said she hoped the scheme would create 'lifelong friendships and collaborations' as well as providing connections and guidance from a team of mentors, including Princess Eugenie, about how to grow a business. Mr Horn said it would be invaluable to have a member of the Royal family on board who had an interest in both fashion and the art world. 'My work crosses over between art and fashion so Princess Eugenie is a perfect mentor,' he said. Composer Jack Pepper said: 'What I stand for as a musician, as a creative, is breaking down barriers, and that's what then attracted me to the foundation 'Equally, that's what the environmental philosophy of the King is about – how can people come together and work together - harmony being the principle underlying all that they do.'
