2021, A Tribute to Françoise Gilot
Françoise Gilot shared her life with Picasso for ten years, from 1943 to 1953. As a talented young artist, sunny and cheerful, she met Picasso at the Catalan, the restaurant near his studio on Rue des Grands-Augustins. At a time when he was living with the anxious, somber Dora Maar, Picasso was captivated by Françoise Gilot’s vitality and asked her over to his studio; she accepted the invitation. The independent, headstrong Gilot was not one to be fooled, but from that moment on she began a relationship with Picasso from which two children were born—Claude in 1947 and Paloma in 1949.
The postwar period was a time of reconstruction in France after it had been torn apart by the conflict, in a context of political tension and a crumbling economy. Rationing, purges, and hopes of peace punctuated the everyday lives of the French people. Picasso and Gilot moved first to Antibes and later to Vallauris, at La Galloise, near the Madoura workshop run by Georges and Suzanne Ramié, with whom Picasso began to explore ceramics.
The best years in their life together were the first three, according to Françoise Gilot, who, beyond their relationship, sought to assert her personality, her hopes, and her desires without depending on a man—not even on a world-renowned artist who painted her as a “femme-fleur.”
Françoise Gilot took up painting again, choosing a minimalist approach entirely opposed to Picasso’s style. Then, from 1951 onward, she added more and more color to her works, as she explains in her memoir. She pursued her personal quest: “I don’t paint what I look at; I paint what looks at me,” she stated. Hence her multiplicity of approaches, her relationship to forms and colors. Self-assured and as demanding with herself as with her work, she decided to leave Picasso and pursue her life as a woman and as an artist, and moved to New York. After writing Life with Picasso, published in 1964—a long time after their separation—she riled up the painter’s anger; he was incensed at her revelations about their intimacy, and even attempted to have the book banned.
In various documentaries about Gilot, we discover an exceptional woman—magnificent, full of enthusiasm, energy, and a love of life—who, in measured and sincere words, describes her creative process, her personal experiences, and her quests. As her 100th birthday approaches, it is likely that the international movement supporting women artists will give a fair place in France to the work of Françoise Gilot, a feminist and rebel before her time who sought freedom of expression and creation. An exhibition (Françoise Gilot, les années françaises, at the Musée Estrine in Saint-Rémy de Provence) and a panel discussion held at the same venue on December 7 pay tribute to this great artist who claimed that all you have to do in life is “be yourself.”
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Summary