1939-45 Symbols

Françoise Gilot was born November 26th, 1921 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. She skips classes and study oil painting with the Hungarian painter Endre Rozsda. The Gestapo sends two officers to check all art before they are exhibited; suspected criticisms are censored. In 1941-42 to express the death of Christianity, George Braque creates somber dead fish still lifes. This inspires Gilot who resolves to voice her opinions through symbols. Each painting becomes a riddle.

As the war ends, Gilot meets several artists from Les Réalitées Nouvelles. The group spans several generations from Sonia Delaunay to Nicolas de Staël; they pledge to express themselves solely through abstraction to reach a new modernity. Gilot joins the group; she works on creating movement, depth, and volume without classical tools such as perspective. Gilot will continue to use symbolism and abstraction throughout her oeuvre.