Who is Françoise Gilot?

The art of Gilot is at once sharp, decisive, and complex. A free spirit, Gilot alternates between abstraction and figuration, escaping classification. Gilot decided to become a painter at the age of five, and subsequently drew prolifically. At fourteen she discovered Gauguin and Van Gogh. At 15 she visits the Paris International Fair of 1937, and sees paintings by contemporary painters Raoul Dufy, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, and in particular Matisse. Gilot is in shock, astounded, and becomes intent on being a modern painter She will research what that means to the confines of her soul and creativity. In 1940, after the French defeat by the Germans, she decides to throw herself into oil painting, the most challenging and noble medium for a painter.

francoise gilot

Gilot explains the consequence of the German occupation, “We knew we could die any day, so there was no space for hesitations, we had to express ourselves right away while we were alive

Journey

That power of decision remained with me my whole life” This is when Madame Bianchini, an Italian silk fabrics designer, created the Exposition des Moins de Vingt Ans, handpicking herself the young artists. During the German occupation of Paris, several SS officer would view all art prior to an exhibition, and any creation deemed subversive would be censored. Gilot developed a strong use of symbols, to criticize undetected; to this day, this is an important key to her work.

Les Réalités Nouvelles

From 1945 to 1946, she becomes a member of the Réalités Nouvelles. The art movement including the painters Sonia Delaunay, and Nicolas de Staël, regrouped artists interested in abstraction. But De Staël wanted to forbid the group’s artists to paint or draw anything figurative, even if it was not shown to the public.

Gilot felt she was too young to eradicate all but abstraction from her pictorial vocabulary; she wanted to be free to explore and developed her own priorities and rules. Yet, although Gilot, sometimes, depicts recognizable figurative elements, such as humans, animals, or landscape, she is not describing them, rather, she uses them as symbols to tell a story or convey an emotion.

The art of Motion

She says that she felt liberated from all ties and traditions. Indeed, movement and figures in motion invade her paintings. While dancers previously had been observed at rest, now dancers, footballers, acrobats, or hand gliders are caught leaping into space. In 1999, the artist paints the series The Comets. The compositions are totally abstract, but they do convey an eerie feeling of huge masses gliding through space.

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Gilot says, “I take the greatest interest in the structure of forms, and the importance of color;” on the subject of composition she adds, “painting is the art of the diagonal, which conveys motion.”
She also explains that when she is done expressing a theme, in order not to become repetitive, she provokes herself by shifting direction drastically, one could say at a diagonal. This accounts for the richness of her creativity, never settling or becoming complacent.

Gilot has exhibited her work for more than fifty years in the major art centers of Europe and North America, and recently in Japan. She remains a vital presence in the art world, creating a bridge between the School of Paris of the 1940s and 1960s and the contemporary American art scene. Her paintings, drawings, monotypes, and original prints are included in the permanent collections of museums and private collections throughout Europe and the United States.
Also a writer and poet of note, Gilot is the author of several books, the best known of which are Life With Picasso – Mc Graw Hill publisher (1964), The Fugitive Eye (1976), Interface: The Painter and the Mask – Fresno University Press (1983), Francoise Gilot: An Artist’s Journey (1987), and Matisse and Picasso: A Friendship in Art – Doubleday publisher (1990).

Gilot was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters with the rank of Commander in 1988, and the rank of Officer in the National Order of Merit in 1996. Gilot has also been elected, by her peers, to the National Academy of Design in New York. In 2010, she has been promoted to the rank of Officer in the Order of the French Legion of Honor.

Works or what makes Francoise gilot unique

Exhibitions

2013: The Mann Gallery
2012: Picasso and Françoise Gilot Paris-Vallauris, 1943-1953, curated by John Richardson at the Gagosian Gallery, New York Françoise Gilot Peintre et Muse, at The Musée du Vieux Nîmes, France
2011: Francoise Gilot zum 90. Geburtstag / on her 90th Birthday, at The Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, in Chemnitz, Germany
The Mann Gallery, Gilot and the Figure
Retrospective of lithographs’ and monotypes at The Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
Transitions : Works by Françoise Gilot, at the Oceanside Museum of Art, California
Françoise Gilot Endre Rozsda une Amitié Artistique, at the Hungarian’s Embassy at the United Nation.
2010: Important Early Works by Françoise Gilot, at The Mann Gallery, New Orleans.
A Life in Art at the Fondation Chanel’s Nexus Hall in Tokyo, Japan
The Kasama Nichido Museum of Art in Kasama, Japan, expands A Life in Art with several « Floating Pictures ».
Pécsi Kisgaléria, Pécs, Hongaria
BLT Gallery, in the Bowery
Symboles at the Galerie La Nivelle in Saint Jean-de-Luz /Ciboure
Galerija-Muzej Lendava, Slovénia.
2009: Exhibition at the Armory Show of New York by the Elkon Gallery.
The Mann Gallery
Rythmes Dynamiques, at the Espace des Femmes, Paris
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary.
Musée National de L’Orangerie, Paris, France, Gilot is part of the exhibition: Les Enfants Modèles, de Claude Renoir à Pierre Arditi

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