Hon – en [katedral] historia

Beskrivning

Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1967. First edition. This copy is one (number 147) of 150 Deluxe Edition housed in a specially designed folder, upon which is mounted an actual cut-out section of ’Hon’ material retrieved after the installation’s destruction at the end of the exhibition. The folder is also signed by each of the main three protagonists, Saint-Phalle, Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt, and stamp-numbered. Original folding colour pictorial wrappers. Text in English and Swedish.

Saint Phalle’s most famous series of works were concerned with the representation of women. This led to the Nanas series, begun in 1964; daubed in bright colours, the larger-than-life athletic females glorified an art of play and festivity. The apotheosis was this monumental ’She: A Cathedral’, a huge shell of a reclining woman, 28 metres long, inside which were rooms, including a cinema and a bar. The illustrated catalogue discusses not only the installation’s prehistory from 1955, but also the mammoth construction project at the Museum, the exhibition itself, and the eventual destruction of the giant figure.

This is not the official catalogue from the exhibition 1966, it is the documentation of the exhibition, it tells the story of the pre-history, the construction diary, the exhibition and the demolition of Niki Saint-Phalle’s, Jean Tinguely’s and Per Olof Ultvedt’s installation ”Hon-En Historia / Hon-en Katedral. ’Hon’ ’She’ ’Elle’ ’Sie’ ’Lei’ ’Zij'” held at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966. It’s important because of the detailed description of the exhibition and the references to media in Sweden and abroad. Numerous photos by Hans Hammarskiöld, K. G. Hultén, Magnus Wibom, Lutfi Özkök. Typography by Melin & Österlin (John Melin till exempel pp. 24-29. See Lutz Jahre 17 – 1966).