Françoise Gilot. The years in France. Ediz. illustrata

The work of Françoise Gilot’s ‘French years’ reveals the archaeology of an artistic production that is little known in France: the artist had dared to leave Picasso, tell her story about life with him, and emigrate to the USA, thus cutting herself off from critics and galleries that followed strict orders from the genius. ‘I don’t paint what I see but rather what concerns me’: Françoise Gilot’s dictum sums up an oeuvre based entirely on a search for her identity through painting, drawing, or engraving, in her still lifes as well as in her portraits, in her choice of figurative art or abstraction. This quest is the origin of a multiplicity of approaches from which a dynamic emerges, shifting the artist toward abstract art with pure, brilliant colours, which would become her trademark, as in the Labyrinth Series, in which Theseus, her mythical alter ego, loses his bearings in order to find himself. The international movement to reassess the work of women artists, of which Françoise Gilot’s oeuvre is certainly an important part, should restore this extraordinary artist to her rightful place in the art world.