new York. Artist Françoise Gilot, who was Pablo Picasso’s partner for a decade, died Tuesday in a Manhattan hospital, the New York Times reported, citing a daughter of the deceased.
Gilot suffered from lung and heart problems, his daughter Aurelia explained.
The author of a book entitled Life with Picasso, published in 1964, Gilot was not only one of the few women to leave the Spanish painter of her own free will, but also rebuilt her sentimental and artistic life and had a notable career in Art United states. as a painter and writer after their separation.
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Gilot met Picasso in 1943 when she was 21 and he was 61 and they married. They never married but were in a relationship for ten years and had two children together, Claude and Paloma.
Breaking News: Françoise Gilot, the accomplished painter whose art was eclipsed by her relationship with Pablo Picasso, has died at the age of 101. https://t.co/2aO7us6jDs pic.twitter.com/0tXKJwL5I8
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 6, 2023
At a time when the figure of Picasso is being reinterpreted as a manipulative macho man, the newspaper recalls an excerpt from the book when Gilot announced to the painter that he was leaving him and Picasso reacted as follows:
“Do you think anyone will be interested in you? They will never do it just for you: even the people you think value you will only be a curiosity of sorts for a person whose life has touched mine so deeply,” he told her.
The book was a bestseller and despite its mostly friendly tone towards his ex-lover – he eventually dedicated it to ‘Pablo’ – it enraged Picasso, who cut him and their two children together.
And although the book and her state as a former lover of genius brought her the greatest fame, her career as a painter was successful: several of her paintings are part of the collections of the MET Museum, MoMA or the Center Pompidou in Paris; In 2021, a work by him entitled “Pigeon with Guitar” was auctioned at Sotheby’s for 1.3 million dollars.