Niki de Saint Phalle embodied the art of self-reinvention. In the 1960s, fate led her to the West Coast, the site of her last incarnation, where she brought her historically misrepresented practice to sublime heights until her passing in 2002. Across the deserts of San Diego and Las Vegas and the hills of Malibu, the Franco-American artist produced exuberant, monumental works with a signature vitality that set her apart from her Nouveau Réalisme male contemporaries. Through Saint Phalle’s oeuvre and conversations with her inner circle, Yann Perreau examines her attraction to the region, her personal challenges, and a timely renewed interest in her work.

In this interview, Rosamund Felsen describes engaging in the nascent 1960s Los Angeles art world; the founding of Gemini GEL with her husband, Sidney, and Stanley and Elyse Grinstein; working in the now-defunct Pasadena Art Museum and that museum’s downfall; starting a gallery to show younger artists making nontraditional forms of art; the financial difficulties of exhibiting Conceptual art; and the importance of art schools in forming a regional art scene.