A recent grouping of art works, featuring bird imagery from the permanent collection in the OJAC’s entry gallery, inspired a deeper and fruitful dive into the life and work of artist Françoise Gilot.

 

Françoise Gilot was born in 1921, grew up in Paris and London and began studying art as a young child. She decided to be a painter at age 5, was a professional artist by age 19, and remains an influential artist at age 101. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gilot designed costumes, stage sets, and masks for productions at the Guggenheim in New York City. In 2010, Gilot was awarded the Officer of the Légion d'honneur, the French government’s highest honor in the arts. Gilot’s influence and popularity continue today; just last year, she was described as an “It Girl” by The New York Times.

 

Gilot’s personal relationships have sometimes overshadowed her significant artistic career. At 21, Gilot met Pablo Picasso, then 61. Though Picasso and Gilot spent almost ten years together and share two children—Claude and Paloma—Gilot and Picasso never married. In 1955, she married the French artist Luc Simon. Their marriage lasted only a few years and produced one daughter, Aurélia. In 1970 she married Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine; their marriage lasted until Salk's death in 1995.

 

Currently on view among the bird installation is Gilot’s lithograph, Little Girl with Owl, 1966. It is now clear that the work is actually a portrait of her daughter, Aurélia Simon. In this work, Aurélia, with long straight hair and bangs, is around 10 years old. She wears a high-neck long-sleeve dress of red, black, and green whose colors mimic the garden in which she stands flanked by a pair of tall trees. Her arms are bent to cradle an owl, possibly a childhood pet. Both the girl and the owl stare out at us with large pensive eyes.

 

Today the artist’s daughter, Aurélia Simon Engel, is the director of the Françoise Gilot Archives, which is responsible for maintaining and authenticating Gilot’s massive body of work, running Gilot’s galleries, and directing exhibitions at other galleries.

 

Note: This work was received by bequest from H. Frost Bowman, who also donated the majority of the OJAC’s vast Pre-Columbian collection.

Amy Kelly

Registrar

Young Girl with Owl (aka Aurélia and the Owl), DETAIL,1966. FRANÇOISE GILOT. Color lithograph. 2001.017