Niki de Saint Phalle was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine,Hauts-de-Seine near Paris,to Jeanne Jacqueline (née Harper) and André-Marie Fal de Saint Phalle,a banker.

In 1961,she became known around the world for her Shooting paintings.A shooting painting consisted of a wooden base board on which containers of paint were laid,then covered with plaster.The painting was then raised and de Saint Phalle would shoot at it with a 22 caliber rifle.The bullets penetrated paint containers which spilled their contents over the painting.This "painting style" was completely new,and she travelled around the world performing shooting sessions in Paris,Sweden,Malibu,California,and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.Saint Phalle had stopped making these shooting pictures in 1963 as in her own words,‘I had become addicted to shooting,like one becomes addicted to a drug'.