Ricardo Cat by Niki de Saint-Phalle

Several of these pictures show abstract-seeming details of a monumental sculpture packed with colourful gleams and glints.

Part mirror, part glass mosaic on the inside, by moving a few inches to this side or that the viewer can make its textures, patterns and colours change like a kaleidoscope.

It has a joyful character, with octopus, star and heart motifs. Blue, red, green, silver and gold mosaic tiles and natural pebbles complete the effect.

Stepping back, we see a curvy cat in the form of a playhouse for children with arms like a hug around a flat bench-style lap. The sculpture was flanked by a ‘Do not climb’ notice which I saw several children ignoring.

It’s difficult to judge what the artist herself would have hoped for or to hit a balance between criticising the notice or the children. We don’t want art to be destroyed, but I get the feeling the artist included features by design that would at the least tempt children to play in it.

Ricardo Cat is in the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Its French, American, Swiss artist, Niki de Saint-Phalle, is known under a dozen different (or slightly different) names. I’ve used the one marked preferred.

Shared for Becky’s Bright Squares. By coincidence, we are thinking along the same lines.