Niki de Saint Phalle's Tarot Garden Explored in Two New Books

Two new publications from Éditions Hazan and Éditions Actes Sud delve into Niki de Saint Phalle's monumental Tarot Garden in Tuscany. The project began in 1974, and by 1980 a two-hectare site owned by the Agnelli family was secured. Saint Phalle spent twenty years on the garden, living on-site for a decade inside the Empress sculpture. Inspired by Gaudí's Park Güell, she believed art should not be confined to walls and self-financed the project through a perfume licensing deal. The garden features twenty-two monumental sculptures—sixteen female and six male figures—inspired by tarot major arcana, blending her signature Nanas, monsters, and snakes with references to Uccello, cathedral architecture, Russian churches, and Mexican and Indian temples. The Actes Sud volume parallels the garden with other monumental creations, while the Hazan edition, richly illustrated, includes testimonies from close associates and Jill Johnston's analysis of the sculptures' symbolism.