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Françoise Gilot in 2004: Late appreciation
Photo: Jean-Pierre Muller / AFP
He would destroy her career: With this threat from Pablo Picasso, his relationship with the artist Françoise Gilot ended.
The two were a couple between 1943 and 1953 and had several children together.
Gilot later recalled the words Picasso used to comment on the separation: »You think people are interested in you?
They will never be truly interested in you, but will always look at you with curiosity because your life is so intimately connected to mine."
The famous painter is said to have even used his influence in Paris to prevent the success of the young, then relatively unknown artist.
Gilot was eventually forced to leave France to continue working on her career in the USA.
Triumphal homecoming
Now, almost a year after her death in June 2023, there is at least a triumphant return to Paris for Gilot's artistic work: the Picasso Museum will set up a permanent presentation.
A room in the museum will be dedicated solely to her.
As the house announced in a statement, Gilot was explicitly recognized not as Picasso's muse or inspiration, but as an artist of her own standing.
It's not about pictures or photographs that Picasso painted and took of her during their relationship, but exclusively about her own works.
Gilot met Picasso in a Parisian café in 1943.
She was 21 at the time and he was 61. She later left him and took her two children Claude and Paloma with her.
Her work is attributed to the Nouvelle École de Paris, which brought together artists who dedicated themselves to abstract painting.
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