FRANÇOISE GILOT
(1921-2023)
1921–1941 Françoise Gilot is born November 26th, in Neuilly, a Paris’s district. At five years old she decides she will be a painter. Her mother is her first teacher. At seventeen her father makes her enters law school. But the war has started; the Germans occupy Paris. They are particularly
hostile to law students and Gilot convinces her father that she needs to switch to fashion design.
1942 She meets the young Hungarian painter, Endre Rozsda; secretly, she studies at his studio.
1943 Gilot says of that period, “We could die any day, there was no space for hesitations”. First exhibit for Gilot and a friend.
One evening they meet Pablo Picasso and invite him to the show. In turn, he invites them to his studio. Gilot enters the Académie Julian to study under Jean Souverbie. The school exhibits her works and sells most of it.
1944 Gilot designs costumes for the dancer Margueritte Bougai. She meets the young painter Luc Simon who comes from a family of stain glass master. Like Gilot he has been trained in drawing since childhood. He visits her everyday.
1945 Becomes the youngest member of the “Réalités Nouvelles”. Sonia Delaunay, Jean Arp, Nicolas de Staël, and the sculptor Constantin
Françoise drawing, 1950
Brancusi head the group of abstract artists. Exhibit at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris with them.
1946 Gilot and Picasso start to live together.
1947 Claude is born on May 15th. Gilot draws his many expressions sometimes figuratively sometimes abstracted. Every shape becomes a Claude face, a trapeze, a cloud, or a kite.
1949 Paloma is born on April 19th. Her peaceful good nature becomes a source of inspiration. Gilot draws a blissful Paloma Sleeping. Paloma is rendered in a more figurative style. The couple’s life is simple and centered on art.
Françoise painting the Heracles ballet stage set, 1953
1950–1951 Picasso’s art dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler takes her under contract in the Louise Leiris Galerie. Gilot prepares a collection of happy paintings depicting scenes of everyday life and meals prepared in the kitchen.
Yet sharp knives, bars on the windows, and the fire lacking under the cooking dish, all indicates tensions.
1952 Exhibit at the Leiris Galerie; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris purchases a painting. The Curt Valentine Gallery in New York and the Leicester Gallery in London sign her contracts. Kahnweiler asks her to make two lithographs at the Fernand Mourlot print studio.
1953 Designs stage sets and costumes for the ballet Herakles, choreographed by the dancer Jeanine Charrat. She paints the sets on huge pieces of fabric. She leaves Picasso in September.
1954 Gilot is walking in Saint Germain des Près and sees Luc Simon. They marry the next year.
1955–1956 While in Venice, Simon and Gilot set up their easels in the streets and paint from nature; this is a first for her. During those two years, Gilot sometimes paints with a model. She does a whole classical series on dancers both in oil and in pastel.
1956 Aurélia is born on October 19th. Picasso pressures Kahnweiler to drop Gilot.
1957 Exhibit at the Galerie Coard in Paris. Exhibits there until the 70's.
1958–1960 Gilot paints her children, still-lives of pale tones livened by touches of colors, as well as a series of
Françoise painting "The Pink Blouse" , 1955
London. Exhibit at the Mayor Gallery of London. Mourlot invites her to make more lithographs. Meanwhile the couple experiences a lot of tensions.
1961 First of many exhibits in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gilot and Simon separate in the fall, but their discussion on art continues.
1962 A trip to Greece, reminds Gilot of the legend of Theseus, the Minotaur, and Ariadne. From 1962 to 1964 she works on the theme of the Labyrinth, using only abstraction.
1964 The Tate Gallery finds her a studio in London. While painting Greek ruins, animals start to make their way into her paintings. She writes, “It was as if all of a sudden the quintessential dwellers of Noah’s Ark had chosen my studio as a place in which to disembark.”
Publishes Life with Picasso at McGraw-Hill, United Sates. It is translated in many languages.
1965 Exhibit at the David Finlay Gallery New York, Milan Italy, and Hamburg Germany.
1966–1968 Exhibit at the Galleria San Stephano Venice and in Dallas Texas. When the Mayor Gallery stops its activity, the Leicester Gallery signs her on again. Exhibit and lectures throughout Michigan. At the end of the year, Gilot leaves her London studio.
1969 June Wayne, who studied at Mourlot, invites Gilot to create lithographs at the Tamarind Institute Los Angeles. Chantal Hunt, a good friend and her husband John Hunt, Vice-President of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, introduce Dr. Jonas Salk, of the Polio Vaccine to Gilot.
Françoise in front of "Conversation sous l'Arbre", 1965, Getty Images Fred W. McDarrah
1970–1973 June 29th Gilot and Salk marry in Neuilly. She moves to La Jolla California. The Southern California bright light has an immediate effect on her style; the in Pasto and texture are replaced by flat plans of bold colors. She says, “I felt liberated from all ties and traditions”. She works on A Midsummer Nights Dream series and executes twenty-two lithographs. Publishes a book of poetry, with lithographs, Sur La Pierre printed at Mourlot, edited by Union Edition.
1974 Gilot and Salk travel extensively for her exhibitions and his research, five times to India visiting a different region each time. First exhibit at the Mann Gallery New Orleans, Louisiana.
1975 For Californian modern homes, Gilot paints a series of screens to act as room divider. Publishes Le Regard et Son Masque (Interface: The Painter and the Mask) at Calman-Levy.
In it, she analyses how different visual elements caught her attention in her early childhood. Paloma publishes a limited edition of, Paloma Sphinx, a children tale Gilot had written and illustrated for her when she was a child.
1976–1977 Exhibit at the New Orleans City hall for the bicentennial celebration. Publishes The Fugitive Eye her poems in English illustrated with older drawings at the Aeolian Press.
1978 Gilot paints the abstract series Autobiographical. She becomes director of the fine arts department at the Idyllwild Art campus in California. She receives her first French decoration, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
1979 Exhibit at the Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles Françoise Gilot: a Retrospective 1943-1978” publishes a catalogue.
Françoise Drawing with charcoal and pastel "An Angel" (Jacob1) , 1969, by Michel Ginfray at APIS™
1980 Gilot creates the “Floating Paintings” like stage sets. Both sides are painted with acrylic on fabrics. Gilot makes her firsts “monotypes” at the Richard Royce Studios New York. Printed on the same press as lithographs, the monotypes however are not multiples. The artist paints directly on a Plexiglas, each layer is printed once, and then erased. Sometimes very thin papers, often Japanese or Chinese are added and are pressed into the composition.
Françoise doing reading from her poetry book "Sur la Pierre", 1972
1981 Gilot acquires a loft in New York. Exhibit at the Chattanooga Museum in Tennessee.
1982 Exhibit at the Palm Spring Desert Museum in California Françoise Gilot Emblems and Symbols travels to the Oklahoma Art Center in Oklahoma City.
1983 Publishes Interface: the Painter and the Mask at California State University. Illustrates Colette’s Break of Day for The Limited Edition Club of New York.
1984 Exhibit at the Allegro Gallery in Sydney; speaks at the Australian International Writer Conference in Adelaide. Other exhibits California State University Fresno; Herman Wünschen Gallery, Bonn; Galerie George Lavrov, Paris; and Maison Descartes, Amsterdam.
1985 Paints the backdrop Dream Twilight and
designs costumes for Satyavan, by composer Joel Thome, performed at the Guggenheim Museum Theatre.
Executes monotypes with Judith Solodkin, director of the Solo Press and the first woman master printer at the Tamarind Institute. Madeleine Gilot passes away in Paris. Françoise, in pain cannot paint for six months.
1986 Buys an Art Deco artist studio in the iconic avenue Junot in Montmartre, Paris.
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1987 Exhibit at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, France. Designs costumes and masks for the ballet Shi-me by choreographer Yen Lu Wong, performed at the Japan American Theatre in San Pedro California, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis Minnesota, and the Asia Pacific Festivals in Vancouver British Colombia. Exhibit at the Musée Picasso in Antibes, France, Gilot, an Artist’s Journey; book/catalogue published by The Atlantic Monthly Press of New York.
1988 The homeless people in New York remind Gilot of the people displaced during World War II. The artist creates the character of the Wanderer, a small silhouette lost in an immense landscape. Exhibit at the Hofstra University Museum New York and El Paseo Museum of Art Texas. Gilot is awarded the rank of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.
Françoise painting the floating picture "Emblem for a World Beyond", 1980
1989 Gilot buys a studio in New York build as an artists’ coop in the 1900s. She works on Monotypes incorporating old bank notes and insects engravings to create her subjects.
1990 Exhibit at the Galerie Berggruen Paris, Monotypes they publish, Françoise Gilot Monotypes. Exhibit at the Tennessee Museum of Fine Art, Memphis. Publishes Matisse and Picasso, a Friendship in Art at Doubleday, New York. President François Mitterrand, awards Gilot the rank of “Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur”.
Françoise painting "Dancer3", 1974
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1991 Mourlot passes away. Gilot creates Tulipes For the exhibit Hommage à Fernand Mourlot, organized by his son Jacques Mourlot, and Genetic Patterns to benefits the Salk Institute.
1992 Designs costume for the ballet Septet by choreographer Jeff Slayton. Dream Twilight, the backdrop for the Guggenheim is use again. Performed at California State University Long Beach and at the Contemporary Museum of San Diego, La Jolla. Coupled with a Gilot exhibition on dance. Publishes Matisse et Picasso; Une Amitié at the Édition Robert Laffont, Paris.
1993–1994 Exhibit at the Muskegon Museum of Art, Michigan. Illustrates Ariana Huffington’s The Gods of Greece published by, Atlantic Monthly Press, coupled with a Gilot exhibit at the Severin Wunderman Museum, Irvine, California.Lisa Alther writes Birdman and the Dancer inspired by some Gilot’s monotypes, published by Gyldendal edition, Copenhagen.
1995 Dr. Jonas Salk passes away in La Jolla with Gilot by his side. Exhibit at the Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Publishes Stone Echoes: Original Prints by Françoise Gilot – A Catalogue Raisonné at The University of Pennsylvania Press, coupled with a show at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania. Elected by her peers her to the National Academy of Design in New York.
1996 It is a period of mourning. Now, Gilot lives full time in New York. Exhibit of Stone Echoes at The Muskegon Museum. Exhibit at the Cultural Center of the French Embassy, New York. Exhibit at The Musée Picasso d’Antibes: 1946, Picasso et la Méditerranée Retrouvée, catalogue texts by Françoise Gilot and Maurice Fréchuret, éditions Grégoire Gardette.
Françoise reading "An artist's Journey" on her rooftop in New York, 2000, by Bruno Mouron
The President Jacques Chirac awards Gilot the rank of “Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite”.
1997 Exhibit at the Berman Museum, For Ever and a Day, Floating Paintings and Monotypes.
1998 Gilot turns to the cosmos. Comets are the new wanderers, unpredictable in their course. Celestial bodies seen up close are present till 2004. Interview by Charlie Rose.
1999 September 16th, Endre Rozsda passes away. Exhibit at the Galerie Piltzer, Paris a few days later. Television documentary by Jean-Claude Jean produced by Key Light Productions.
2000 Exhibit at The Galerie Larock-Granoff, Paris The Comets. Exhibit at The McMullen Museum of Art Boston College, Massachusetts Françoise Gilot 1940–1950 Oils and Works on Paper. Exhibit Gilot-Rozsda at the Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary. Françoise Gilot Publishes Monograph 1940–2000 at Acatos, Lausanne.
2001–2002 Exhibit at the Mann Gallery. The Metropolitan Museum of New York acquires three drawings from the 40’s. A collector gives a major painting to the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Françoise painting , 2000, by Bruno Mouron
2003 Exhibit at the Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz, Germany, Françoise Gilot Painting - Malerei, a major retrospective of nonfigurative works, catalogue published by Kerber Verlag. Curated by Ingrid Mössinger, the museum director, the exhibition wins Germany’s best museum exhibition of the year. At the opening, Françoise Gilot unexpectedly meets the German photographer Ulrich Mack, who had photographed her in 1965.
Matisse and Picasso at the MOMA; the Gilot’s book Matisse and Picasso is published in pocket book format.
2004–2005 Exhibit by The Elkon Gallery of New York at the Armory Show of the Art Dealers Association of America, a retrospective. Exhibit Várfok. Publishes Dans L’Arène avec Picasso, by Françoise Gilot and Annie Maïllis at the Éditions Indigène.
2006–2008 Exhibit at the Studio School New York, Compositions, 2002–2005. Exhibits in New York, Budapest, New Orleans, Dusseldorf, and at the Salk. Mack publishes his photographs, Françoise Gilot - Eine Photographisches Portrait, Bentali Verlag, Wabern/Bern; the texts by Gilot, Claude Picasso and Paloma Picasso. Also a French and an English version.
2009 Exhibit at L’Espace des Femmes Paris, Rythmes Dynamiques. Exhibit of some works at the Musée National de L’Orangerie: Les Enfants Modèles, De Claude Renoir à Pierre Arditi, Paris, France. President Nicolas Sarkozy awards Gilot the rank of “Officier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur”; she now feels “like an old general”.
2010 “Spirits” from Brittany hitchhike her suitcase when she visits the stone site in Carnac as she remembers the legend of her youth. New monotypes are printed at the Solo Press under the camera of Thierry Spitzer, in view of the film Towards Monotypes. Exhibit at the Fondation Chanel’s Nexus Hall in Tokyo, Japan, A Life in Art. It is expanded and travels to the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Japan. The painting Still Life with Fruits, 1952, collected by the museum founders is included.
Françoise in front of "Uncertainty Principle" in Paris, 2003
Exhibit in Pécs Hungary organized by The Várfok travels to the museum Galerija-Muzej Lendava, Slovénia. Exhibit at the BLT Gallery, in the Bowery, monotypes produced in 2009. Exhibit at the Galerie La Nivelle in Saint Jean-de-Luz, Symboles.
2011 Exhibit at Chemnitz, Françoise Gilot zum 90. Geburtstag / On Her 90th Birthday, catalogue by Minerva. Exhibit at the United Nation of the Hungarian’s Embassy. Françoise Gilot- Endre Rozsda une Amitié Artistique with photographs of Françoise by Robert Capa. Exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art, California Transitions. Exhibit at the Várfok. Publishes Françoise Gilot oeuvres works 1985–2010 at Acatos with texts by her daughter Aurélia Engel.
Françoise in front of "Gordian Knot II" in Paris, 2010, by Colas Engel
2012 Exhibit by John Richardson Picasso and Françoise Gilot Paris-Vallauris, 1943–1953, at the Gagosian Gallery, New York. The catalogue written by Richardson, features texts by Francoise Gilot. Exhibit Françoise Gilot Peintre et Muse, at The Musée du Vieux Nîmes, France, of works seldom seen. Exhibit at the Berman Museum includes their collection as well as important works lend by collectors. Exhibit for the Mann Gallery’s fortieth anniversary.
2013–2014 Gilot decides not to exhibit for a year and concentrates on the abstract yellow series.
2015 Based on The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, she paints a series with cynical humor. Commissioned by the American Ballet Theatre to create the backdrop for Marcello Gomez’s After Effect performed in 2015 at the ABT and in 2016 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Publishes About Women: Conversations between a Writer and a Painter with co-author Lisa Alther at Doubleday. They compare experiencing the cultural codes and being a woman growing up, one in France between the two World Wars and the other in Tennessee in the fifties. The contrast makes both and any code look idiosyncratic.
2016 Exhibit at the Colas Engel Fine Arts and signing of About Women, by both authors. Gilot is the Honorary Chair of Symphony at the Salk and gives the poster’s image every year. To celebrate the Symphony’s twentieth anniversary, The Salk made banners of the twenty posters. During the concert, they used details of Gilot’s oeuvres on a giant screen. They repeated it in 2016 to celebrate Gilot’s attendance.
Françoise painting "Irregular Orbits" in Paris, 2003
2017 Taschen publishes Françoise Gilot Three Travel Sketchbooks Venice India Senegal presented in a box. Jacob Manguno, the owner of the Mann Gallery, passes away. They had been working together since 1974 in a wonderful relationship of good humor and friendship.
Françoise in New York, 2019, by Aurélia Engel
2018 Exhibit at the Mac Gryder Gallery New Orleans.
2019 Exhibit at the Elkon Gallery, Françoise Gilot Red: Paintings from the 50’s to the present. The New York Book Review reedits Life with Picasso; the painting Blue Study is on the cover.
2021 Exhibit at the Musée Estrine Saint Rémi de Provence, France, Françoise Gilot: les années Française. Exhibit at the Várfok Galery her career through works on paper and paintings lend by their Gilot collectors. At Sotheby’s London Women Artists auction, Paloma à la Guitare makes the highest bid.
6 June 2023 Françoise Gilot passed away in New York.