The artist Françoise Gilot, who was Pablo Picasso's partner for a decade and mother of two of his children, died in the last hours in a Manhattan hospital at the age of 101.
Gilot suffered from lung and heart problems, his daughter Aurelia said. according to The New York Times, which quoted her when confirming the news.
Author of a book entitled "Life with Picasso", published in 1964, Gilot was not only one of the few women who left the Spanish painter by her will, but also rebuilt her sentimental and artistic life, and had a remarkable career in the United States as a painter and writer after their separation.
Born on November 26, 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in the suburbs of Paris, France, into a bourgeois family, Gilot followed in the footsteps of her mother, a watercolorist, to orient herself towards drawing and painting.
Gilot and Picasso met in 1943 and had a ten-year relationship. Together they had two children. AFP Photo
Among his mentors was the surrealist Endre Rozsda and his first exhibition was held in a Parisian gallery in 1943, the year he met Picasso.
Gilot was 21 and he was 61 when they met and the two were coupled. They never married but maintained a relationship for ten years and had two children: Claude and Paloma.
At a time when the figure of Picasso is being reinterpreted as a manipulative and macho man, the New York Times recalls an excerpt from the book, when Gilot announced to the painter that he was leaving him and Picasso reacted.
The artistic collection of François Gilot
"Do you think anyone is going to be interested in you? They will never do it just for you: even the people you think appreciate you, it will only be a kind of curiosity for a person whose life touched mine so intimately, "says the artist who answered her then partner.
Françoise Gilot achieved a career as an artist of her own, away from the shadow of Picasso. Photo Jean Pierre Muller / AFP file
The book was a best seller and despite its mostly friendly tone with his ex-partner – he dedicated it "to Pablo" – it infuriated Picasso, who withdrew the word, as well as the two children.
Already a U.S. citizen, she did not attend the artist's funeral in 1973.
And although the book and her status as an ex-partner of the genius was what gave her more fame, her career as a painter was successful.
Picasso and Françoise Gilot (1948), photographed by Robert Capa.
Several of his paintings are part of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the MoMA, modern arts, or the Pompidou Center in Paris.
Even in 2021 a work of his titled "Dove with a guitar" sold for 1.3 million dollars at an auction at Sotheby's.
With information from agencies.
DS
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