Hong Kong – Christie’s and HomeArt proudly present【Françoise Gilot: A Celebration】- an exhibition showcasing some of the most important works from throughout Gilot’s career, to celebrate the extraordinary life of the artist on her 100th birthday.

Already was one of the most respected members of her generation by age 21, Françoise Gilot witnessed and helped define one of the last great periods in European Modern Art, alongside masters including Braque, Chagall, Cocteau, Matisse, as well as Picasso, with whom she had a decade-long relationship. One of the most gifted creative minds of her generation in Europe, she has devoted her entire life to the continuous exploration of multiple creative disciplines between painting, print-making, and writing, as well as experimenting with creative tensions between abstraction and figuration. Her creations have been exhibited in major museums around the world.

Gilot’s extensive contribution as a visionary, enduring, and independent artist will be featured in this exhibition, presenting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for audiences in Asia to appreciate her most significant works, from the 1940s to the 2010s. As a celebration of Gilot’s extraordinary life and work, Christie’s honours the artist by opening the exhibition on 26 November, the day of her centenary at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

About Françoise Gilot– Already a rising star in the art world at age 21, Gilot belonged to the post-War milieu of artists redefining the European artistic landscape. Following her first important exhibition in Paris in 1943, Gilot signed a contract with the legendary art dealer Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, becoming one of only two female artists to ever be signed by him. Her first exhibit with Kahnweiler’s famed Galerie Louise Leiris took place in 1952 in Paris, a critical moment in her life and career.

In her early career in France, Gilot was influenced by her peers such as Picasso, Braque, Chagall, Matisse, and Cocteau, and emerged as a member of the younger Post-War generation that evolved out of the Modern era. Gilot flourished in her practice, and increasingly spent time in America during the 1960s, commencing a new chapter and pursuing new directions in her work and life.

Gilot’s artistry further evolved upon her move to the United States in 1970, as she began exploring multiple creative disciplines between painting, print-making, and writing, and examining creative tensions between abstraction and figuration. In 1970, her work was exhibited at the Southampton Museum of Art, New York, the first of many museum exhibitions to follow. Gilot would receive the honour of Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur from the French Ministry of Culture in 1990, followed by the Officier de la Legion d’Honneur, bestowed by the French government in 2009. Gilot’s work is found in important museum collections globally, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris.

Notes to Editor

Public Preview:

Hong Kong | 26 November – 1 December | Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, No.1 Harbour Road, Wanchai