Niki de Saint Phalle’s Nanas Noires: Cultural Appropriation or Anti-racist Politics?

This contribution offers a reflection on the recent critical interpretations and events in the wake of the exhibitions of the Nanas noires, a series created by Niki de Saint Phalle from 1965 onwards. Seen until recently as the product of a political feminist and anti-racist practice, these works were not included in the big American retrospective at the MoMA PS1 in New York (2021). A politically aware section of North American critics interpreted this exclusion as a choice since, without an adequate contextualisation, the Nanas noires could have been perceived as caricatural and racist sculptures. The episode reveals a change of paradigm in the reading of the series, linked to the development of a decolonial perspective, and it raises many questions on the connections between art, politics, authorship, historiographical models and curatorial decisions. What roles do identity and the artist’s political position play in the conception of a work? Can a white feminist artist work on the histories and identity of Black people or are they risking cultural appropriationism? From these questions the contribution offers an analysis of the complicated critical reception that the Nanas noires have received currently.