In 1981, a uniquely decorated airplane designed by Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle took off from Le Bourget Airport in France, showcasing one of her most unusual and lesser-known works. The project, commissioned by the Peter Stuyvesant tobacco company foundation, transformed a standard Piper Aerostar 602 P twin-engine aircraft into a flying work of art that would compete in the first transatlantic air race between Paris and New York.
Saint Phalle painted the aircraft in her characteristic playful style, featuring colorful motifs that included blue arabesques crawling along the wings and floral elements blooming beneath the cabin. She completed the design with a large red nose on the front of the fuselage, according to the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. The artist also designed original and colorful outfits for the pilots who would fly the decorated plane.
In a mischievous act of rebellion against her tobacco company sponsor, Saint Phalle added a "No Smoking" sign under the belly of the aircraft. The artist, who was allergic to tobacco smoke, used this opportunity to make a playful jab at her sponsor while expressing her opposition to cigarette manufacturing.
On June 6, 1981, the aircraft took flight for the first transatlantic air race Paris-New York-Paris, piloted by French aviator Jean-Pierre Chauzit alongside Jacques Callies. During the three-day competition, 17 nations competed with small aircraft. The Piper Aerostar 602 P painted by Saint Phalle was the most modern aircraft in the competition and brilliantly finished in second place, as reported by the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. "Believe it or not, this flying psychedelic wonder will make the round trip between France and Connecticut this weekend to participate in the first transatlantic air race," the artist commented shortly before the race.
Saint Phalle was neither the first nor the last artist to decorate an airplane. In 1973 and 1975, Alexander Calder was commissioned by Braniff International airline to paint two aircraft - the first for South America, brightened with red, blue and yellow geometric shapes, and the second, painted in red and blue, to celebrate the bicentennial of American independence. In 1989, Keith Haring decorated a monumental inflatable airplane structure to commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution. In 2014, the Brazilian duo Osgemeos took over a Boeing 737 that transported the national football team for the World Cup.
However, Saint Phalle's most ambitious and controversial work remains "Hon" (meaning "She" in Swedish), a monumental sculpture that broke all records: 75 feet long, 20 feet high, weighing 6 tons, and attracting 100,000 visitors in three months. This masterpiece was commissioned in 1966 by Pontus Hulten, director of Stockholm's Moderna Museet, who desired an ephemeral monumental statue for the summer.
Saint Phalle collaborated with her husband Jean Tinguely and Finnish artist Olof Ultvedt to create a major European pop art piece that would break away from those seen in the United States. After much deliberation and Tinguely's initial proposal for a mechanical theater, the four artists decided on a piece conceived as a cathedral. Ultimately, they chose Saint Phalle's Nana model as their template.
The concept was daring: an enormous pregnant woman lying on her back with legs spread apart, designed for visitors to enter through her vagina. "There was nothing pornographic about Hon even though one entered through her sex," Saint Phalle explained at the time. "Pontus knew that with this vast lady he was embarking on a perilous adventure. So he decided to keep the entire project secret. Otherwise, the authorities might have misinterpreted the rumors and banned the exhibition before its opening. We had to build a giant screen behind which we worked. No one was authorized to see what we were doing."
Hon was not Saint Phalle's first Nana sculpture. The first, called Gwendoline, was created in the early 1960s, before giving way to a long line of feminine sculptures that would mark the Franco-American artist's career. Born in Paris in 1930, Saint Phalle created these voluptuous statues like dolls with large breasts and buttocks, each named after people close to the creator: Elizabeth after her sister, Clarisse after her friend.
These sculptures represented both the artist's universe - her nanny was called Nana - and were tinged with political statements. Conceived in the feminist context of the 1960s, these silhouettes embodied a different femininity, in opposition to the prevailing bodily dictates. The old term "nana" also referred to prostitutes. Today, these sculptures can be found around the world, from Nice to Hanover, from Stockholm to New York.
The construction of the immense Hon occupied Saint Phalle's team for exactly six weeks, after they had first created a miniature version as a model. The artist described the process: "Jean, who was capable of measuring by eye, managed to enlarge the model into an iron framework that was the exact replica of the original. Once the chassis was welded, an immense surface of mesh was welded to form the body of the Goddess. On small electric stoves, I cooked masses of stinking rabbit skin glue in enormous pots. Meters of fabric were mixed with the glue, then arranged on the metal skeleton. Several layers were necessary to hide the support. When the canvases were dried and well glued, we painted the goddess's body white." The time constraint imposed by Pontus Hulten pushed them to work 16 hours a day to deliver the statue on time.
In June 1966, visitors discovered Hon in Stockholm, entering the statue through her vagina, which led them directly into a giant labyrinth, followed by a bar housed in her chest, a planetarium in the right breast, a slide in the right leg, and a gallery of fake paintings by Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock. On the Nana's belly, stairs led to a terrace offering a view of the spectators on the ground. "I painted Hon like an Easter egg with the pure and very bright colors that I have always used and loved," Saint Phalle confided. "It was an incredible creative experience."
The work was a resounding success, marked by 100,000 visits in three months. Hon was nicknamed "the world's biggest whore." She was destroyed faster than she was conceived - in just three days. Her decomposition, rapid and violent, was documented in a film with the objective of denouncing misogyny. The original maquette is still visible at Stockholm's Moderna Museet, serving as a lasting testament to this groundbreaking and controversial work of art.
