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Picasso and Françoise Gilot

Paris–Vallauris 1943–1953

May 2–June 30, 2012
980 Madison Avenue, New York

Installation view Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Françoise Gilot. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Françoise Gilot. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Pablo Picasso, La femme-fleur (Françoise Gilot), June 1946 Oil on canvas, 68 ½ × 26 inches (174 × 66 cm)© 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso, La femme-fleur (Françoise Gilot), June 1946

Oil on canvas, 68 ½ × 26 inches (174 × 66 cm)
© 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso, La femme au fauteil, 1948 Lithograph (vol. VI, 2nd state), 19 ¾ × 25 ⅝ inches (50.2 × 65.1 cm)© 2020 Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Maurice Aeschimann

Pablo Picasso, La femme au fauteil, 1948

Lithograph (vol. VI, 2nd state), 19 ¾ × 25 ⅝ inches (50.2 × 65.1 cm)
© 2020 Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Maurice Aeschimann

Pablo Picasso, Maternité, 1948 Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ × 28 ¾ inches (92 × 73 cm)© 2020 Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Maurice Aeschimann

Pablo Picasso, Maternité, 1948

Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ × 28 ¾ inches (92 × 73 cm)
© 2020 Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Maurice Aeschimann

Pablo Picasso, Paloma et sa poupée, 1952 Oil on plywood, 28 ¾ × 23 ½ inches (73 × 60 cm)© 2020 Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Eric Baudouin

Pablo Picasso, Paloma et sa poupée, 1952

Oil on plywood, 28 ¾ × 23 ½ inches (73 × 60 cm)
© 2020 Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Eric Baudouin

Françoise Gilot, Picasso's Face (Portrait from Memory), 1945 Gouache on paper, 19 ¾ × 26 inches (50.2 × 66 cm)© Francoise Gilot. Photo: Ali Elai, Camera Arts Inc.

Françoise Gilot, Picasso's Face (Portrait from Memory), 1945

Gouache on paper, 19 ¾ × 26 inches (50.2 × 66 cm)
© Francoise Gilot. Photo: Ali Elai, Camera Arts Inc.

Françoise Gilot, Self-Portrait as an Owl with Pablo, 1948 Pencil and gouache on paper, 19 ¾ × 26 inches (50.2 × 66 cm)© Francoise Gilot. Photo: Ali Elai, Camera Arts Inc.

Françoise Gilot, Self-Portrait as an Owl with Pablo, 1948

Pencil and gouache on paper, 19 ¾ × 26 inches (50.2 × 66 cm)
© Francoise Gilot. Photo: Ali Elai, Camera Arts Inc.

About

Everybody has the same energy potential. The average person wastes his in a dozen little ways. I bring mine to bear on one thing only: my paintings, and everything else is sacrificed to it . . . myself included.
—Pablo Picasso

You see, for me a painting is a dramatic action in the course of which the reality finds itself split apart. For me, that dramatic action takes precedence over all other considerations. The pure plastic act is only secondary as far as I’m concerned. What counts is the drama of that plastic art, the moment at which the universe comes out of itself and meets its own destruction.
—Françoise Gilot

Gagosian is pleased to present Picasso and Françoise Gilot: Paris–Vallauris 1943–1953, the fourth major exhibition in an ongoing series on the life and work of Pablo Picasso, following the critical and popular success of Picasso: Mosqueteros (2009), Picasso: The Mediterranean Years (2010), and Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou (2011). The exhibition includes many important loans from museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; as well as from private lenders.

This exhibition is a departure from its precedents in that it has been conceived as a visual and conceptual dialogue between the art of Picasso and the art of Françoise Gilot, his young muse and lover during the period of 1943 to 1953. The result of an active collaboration between Gilot and Picasso’s biographer John Richardson, assisted by Gagosian director Valentina Castellani, Picasso and Françoise Gilot celebrates the full breadth and energy of Picasso’s innovations during these postwar years, presenting Gilot’s paintings alongside his marvelously innovative depictions of her and their family life. It is the first time that their work has been exhibited together—that the painterly dialogue between the fascinated mature male artist and the self-possessed young female artist can be retraced and explored.

Read more

A Foreigner Called Picasso

Behind the Art
A Foreigner Called Picasso

Join president of the Picasso Museum, Paris, Cécile Debray; curator, writer, biographer, and historian Annie Cohen-Solal; art historian Vérane Tasseau; and Gagosian director Serena Cattaneo Adorno as they discuss A Foreigner Called Picasso. Organized in association with the Musée national Picasso–Paris and the Palais de la Porte Dorée–Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris, the exhibition reframes our perception of Picasso and focuses on his status as a permanent foreigner in France.

Dora Maar, Portrait de Picasso, Paris, studio du 29, rue d’Astorg, winter 1935–36

A Foreigner Called Picasso

Cocurator of the exhibition A Foreigner Called Picasso, at Gagosian, New York, Annie Cohen-Solal writes about the genesis of the project, her commitment to the figure of the outsider, and Picasso’s enduring relevance to matters geopolitical and sociological.

Black and white image of  Pieter Mulier. Photo: © Paolo Roversi, courtesy Alaïa

Fashion and Art: Pieter Mulier

Pieter Mulier, creative director of Alaïa, presented his second collection for the legendary house in Paris in January 2022. After the presentation, Mulier spoke with Derek Blasberg about the show’s inspirations, including a series of ceramics by Pablo Picasso, and about his profound reverence for the intimacy and artistry of the atelier.

Portrait of Sir John Richardson, New York, 2005. Photo: Janette Beckman/Getty Images

The Art of Biography: Sir John Richardson’s “The Minotaur Years”

Pepe Karmel celebrates the release of A Life of Picasso IV: The Minotaur Years, 1933–1943, the final installment of Sir John Richardson’s magisterial biography.

A black-and-white portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler seated at a desk in front of a painting by Pablo Picasso.

Game Changer
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler

Michael Cary pays homage to the visionary dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884–1979).

Grace McCann Morley, c. 1950s.

Game Changer
Grace McCann Morley

Berit Potter pays homage to the ardent museum leader who transformed San Francisco’s relationship to modern art.