Françoise Gilot

Françoise Gilot

Françoise Gilot was born on November 26th, 1921. Françoise passed away June 6th, 2023 at 101 years old. Françoise Gilot was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Francoise Gilot was best known as one of the most prolific artists of her time. She was a reputable artist who worked with ceramics and watercolours, even though she would later be known for Life with Picasso, the memoir.

From a very young age, Francoise had a desire to become an artist, even though her father would have preferred a more traditional path. Her mother encouraged her talents, and by the time she was 17, she was working in her grandmother’s attic, where she had a small studio.

Despite political unrest, war, and the loss of work during the Second World War, Françoise Gilot continued to paint as she built a life centred on exploration and expression.

During her active years, she worked with some of the most important artists of the era. She was with Pablo Picasso for ten years, and together they had two children. Despite Picasso’s towering presence, she managed to hold her own artistic identity beside him.

In 1953, Françoise left Picasso, then married the artist Luc Simon, and ultimately the scientist Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine.

For much of her life, she travelled across international borders to exhibit her work. She was known for constant stylistic evolution and for refusing to stay predictable or safe in her creative work. In her later years, she spent most of her time between La Jolla, Paris, and New York.

In her first work, Life with Picasso, Françoise Gilot wrote a memoir about her life with Picasso over a decade. She shares insights into what Picasso was like as an artist, father, and man, showcasing his thoughts on art, his moods and painting style, his work in sculpture, and his relationships with colleagues. She shows how she maintained her identity while living with a colossus. The memoir offers candid, personal stories of their ten-year marriage, including the conflicts, love, and art they produced, even as it shows them as truly complex people.

Nearly three decades later, Gilot published Matisse and Picasso, in which she shares about the unique artistic relationship and friendship between Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Having been Picasso's wife, she knew how much the two men challenged, admired, and influenced each other's work through art, conversation, and letters. She showcases their strong bond despite their rivalry and their differences. From her own experiences. She brings the two men to life as she shows how creativity, friendship, and respect can bring out the best in men.

In 2015, Françoise Gilot teamed up with Lisa Alther to publish the book About Women. The work draws from talks between the American writer Lisa Alther and French artist Françoise Gilot. They are creatives from different generations and places, but they share a ton of experiences. They talk about how motherhood, love, art and style, their childhood, and what it means to live and work as women have impacted them. They also examine how life and art are connected and how women balance society and family expectations with creative work.

Francoise Gilot passed on at the age of 101 from lung and heart disease.

Françoise Gilot: F.A.Q