Niki de Saint Phalle

Saint Phalle's huge, joyful Nanas, voluptuous women in bright polyester and mosaic, made public space feel playful and female. Her Stravinsky Fountain beside the Pompidou Centre, made in 1983 with her husband Jean Tinguely's clanking black machines, is a place where Parisians eat lunch and children watch the sculptures squirt water. The Tarot Garden in Tuscany, built over two decades with local craftspeople and mosaicists, invites visitors to walk inside the figures. In Hanover, her Nanas were mocked when installed in 1974 and are now civic mascots.