Nicola L.: The Pioneer of Anthropomorphic Art and Design
“I am the last woman object, you can touch my mouth, my breasts, my stomach, but I repeat myself it’s the last time.”
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From Wright:
“Nicola L. 1937–2018
Nicola L.'s playful and heady blend of feminism, body politics, humor and a pop sensibility make her one of the leading figures to have emerged from the recent re-examinations of the Pop Art movement. Her iconic and provocative works blur the distinction between art and design, nudging viewers to change the way they inhabit space and use objects.
Nicola L. was born in Mazagan, Morocco in 1937 later moving to and growing up in Paris. As a young woman, she attended the Académie Julian before studying at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. While at the prestigious school, Nicola L. felt stifled by its traditional approach to art making and its aesthetic and philosophical conservatism. After graduating, she became associated with the Parisian Nouveau Réalisme group, which included Arman, Christo, Yves Klein, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely; the movement was seen as a European counterpart to the Pop Art movement. Critic and founder of the movement Pierre Restany described it as "a poetic recycling of urban, industrial and advertising reality," in that it rejected the lyricism of abstraction and the traditional nature of figuration and instead used reality as its medium to create performances, collages and assemblages that worked to deconstruct the special, singular nature of the art object.
These ideas had a monumental influence on the young artist.; In 1964, prompted by Restany's probe "How can anyone paint in the 1960s?" Nicola L. burned all of her paintings and began making the work she is most recognized for today.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Nicola L. created provocative, performative works that subverted the traditional boundaries of art and design and incorporated feminist and political concerns. In 1967, she was invited to New York for a performance and, enchanted by the lively and chaotic downtown art scene, she rented a room at the Chelsea Hotel, which she kept for the next thirty years, splitting her time between there and Paris. Nicola L.'s influential body of work is consistent in that it deals with the same driving themes, endlessly remixed and re-examined. Her commitment to a distinctive and singular vocabulary of motifs and ideas has made her work iconic and instantly recognizable. Serving as an engaging, humanistic counterpoint to her contemporaries who also made "conceptual furniture," Nicola L.'s works are pieces that inspire a life of their own and inhabit space with warmth and wit.
Nicola L.'s work is held widely in collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Antwerpen Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Museum of Modern Art of Glasgow, among others. She was the subject of a 2017 retrospective, Nicola L Works 1968 to Present at the Sculpture Center, Queens, NY and was featured in the important show The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern, London in 2015, a re-examination of Pop Art that stressed the inclusion of more female and international artists in the considered history of the movement. Nicola L. continued to make work until her passing in 2018.”
Works
Nicola L., ‘l'Oeil floor lamp’, France, 1969 / c. 1996 via Wright
Estimate: $15,000
Nicola L., La Femme Commode, Vrej Bashoomian, France, 1969 / 1993 via Wright
Estimate: $11,000
Nicola L. Hand Painted Screen Room Divider, 1960s via Todd Merrill Studio
Estimate: $5,000
Nicola L., Orange Foot Sofa, France, 1960s via Rago Arts
Estimate: $4,000
Nicola L., ‘Les Amants’, 1969 via Wright
Estimate: $20,000-$30,000
Nicola L., ‘Homme-canapé’, France, 1970 via Wright
Estimate: $6,000-$8,000
Nicola L., ‘La Femme Coffee Table’, 1969 via Daily Art Fair
Nicola L., ‘The Library Head’, 2013 via Daily Art Fair
Nicola L., 'Oeil’ lamp, 1969/99 via Invaluable
Nicola L., Rare floor lamp ‘Bouche’, 1968 via Invaluable
Nicola L., ‘L'OEil’ lamp, 1969 via Invaluable
Nicola L., Hand Sofa, France
Nicola L., ‘Roman Emperor’ floor lamp, France, 1989 via Invaluable
Nicola L, ‘Woman Pregnant From TV' Cabinet, 1970 via Invaluable
Nicola L, ‘Canapé Profil bleu’, 2003 via MutualArt
Nicola L’s Chelsea Hotel Apartment, New York City, mid ‘90s to early ‘00s
Archive
PLEASE NOTE* WE HAVE NOT INCLUDED EVERY WORK OF NICOLA L’S, WE URGE OUR READERS TO DO THEIR OWN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INTO ALL OF HER DESIGNS.
DISCLAIMER: THE MILLIE VINTAGE DOES NOT OWN ANY RIGHTS TO THESE PHOTOS. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL IMAGES AND COPYRIGHT BELONGS TO THE ORIGINAL OWNERS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.
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