‘I like to dream. I like to fantasise. I dream of circles.’ – Niki De Saint-Phalle

Executed in 1974, A Amis embodies the exuberance and vitality of Niki De Saint-Phalle’s sculptures. Conjoined at the hip, with arms and legs raised in glee, through her playful, polychromatic retinue of metamorphosing women, the French-American artist celebrates friendship and womanhood. Commencing her celebrated large-scale sculptures of women known as Nanas in 1965, Niki De Saint-Phalle intimately outlines the two women’s slight facial features and carnivalesque clothing through a dazzling array of cadmium yellows, electric blues, greens and pinks.

Present in significant public collections worldwide including the Tate, London; the Whitney, New York and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, since the artist’s death in 2002, the Niki Charitable Art Foundation continues to promote and preserve her creative practice. The subject of exhibitions internationally, a retrospective dedicated to Niki de Saint Phalle is set to open at Museo delle Culture, Milan on 5 October 2024.