French painter Françoise Gilot occupies a unique niche in the modern art landscape as a female giant of the art world.  At 101 she remains one of the most exciting and collectible artists of our century, as well as the preceding one.  

Born in 1921, Gilot’s career was shaped by the artistic milieu of World War II German-occupied Paris.  Having declared at age six her intention to be an artist, Gilot was well on her way before entering college.  After years of diligent lessons in watercolor and India ink, followed by an apprenticeship in etching and printmaking, Gilot displayed an early facility for draftsmanship.  A gifted academic student, she obtained her baccalaureate degree at age 16 and earned advanced degrees in English Literature and law.  But her destiny was clear:  she was and would be an artist, a rebellion that violently angered her father and resulted in a rift between them that never completely healed. 

In the fraught wartime environment, her drive and ambition flourished, and she became one of the rising stars of her generation, loosely aligned with the burgeoning School of Paris movement.  Much of her early work was destroyed in an evacuation attempt, but what survives displays skill and confidence beyond her years. 

She met Pablo Picasso in a café on the eve of her first formal exhibition. Despite their 40-year age difference, Gilot answered his charismatic celebrity with her own strong sense of self.  After viewing her work, he took her seriously as a challenge both artistic and personal; their productive decade-long creative and romantic partnership launched her career and elevated his.  They had two children together, Paloma and Claude, and shared famous friends such as Matisse, Braque and the poet Paul Éluard before Gilot ended the relationship, unwilling to sacrifice her career or her identity to remain in his shadow. 

Leaving Paris behind her, she became a pioneer, establishing a studio in London and traveling through the middle east and later to America where she attracted the attention of another pioneer, medical giant Dr. Jonas Salk; they remained married twenty-five years until his death in 1995.       

Now, after seven decades of creative achievement, Gilot is widely recognized as an innovative colorist and superlative draftsman; her work has been shown in museum exhibitions worldwide and she has published several successful books. Her well-documented oeuvre comprises more than 6,000 paintings as well as drawings and printmaking works, and she has designed theater sets for the stage and ballet productions.  In 2012 she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the nation of France. 

 Gilot has been featured in numerous publications throughout her long career, such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vogue and Vanity Fair.  She has been interviewed twice by Charlie Rose and was recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning.  Her life featured extensively in the award-winning National Geographic series “Genius: Picasso.”