Style Imitating Art: “Suntan”

About Style Imitating Art…

Style Imitating Art comes from Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee. You can think of it as fashion meets art museum! Style Imitating Art challenges people to find inspiration in different art works, create looks based upon that art work, and share them with the curator for that piece. Every other Monday one of the three selects an inspiration piece of art and posts the image on their blog. They then invite others to interpret that art work through their style. The following Monday, they share their outfits. The curator shares submissions the following Wednesday on her blog. Salazar chose this week’s art work. If you’d like, you can read why she chose it here. I have really been impressed with the different art work we’ve seen this year. It’s been challenging at times but always fun! You can see a few of my looks here, here, here, and here.

Inspiration art work…

About the artist…

Françoise Gilot lived a life, my friends! I was completely gobsmacked as I researched this amazing woman. Françoise was born into a rather wealthy family on November 26, 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. Her parents were Emile Gilot, an agronomist and chemical manufacturer, and Madeleine Renoult-Gilot. Her ancestors included a couturier house frequented by Eugenia, the wife of Emperor Napoleon III. Gilot’s father was a strict man who wanted his daughter to be well educated. Upon discovering she was left-handed, he forced her to use her right hand thus making her ambidextrous.

A little more…

Although her mother, who had studied art history, ceramics, and water color, tried to work with the young Françoise on her art, it was her father who eventually called the shots. At the age of five, she had already decided she wanted to be an artist and studied with her mother’s art teacher for six years. The timeline gets a little confusing when it comes to Gilot’s formal education. I have found information saying she received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Paris in 1938. Other information indicates she also received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1938. She completed a degree in English in 1939 from Cambridge. Gilot was also privately tutored and reading Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Alfred Jarry at a young age. In 1939, her father sent her to study law in Rennes rather than Paris. This was due to growing fear of Nazi bombing of Paris.

Even more…

Gilot met Pablo Picasso by chance in 1943. She was 21; he was four decades older. The two were together until 1953 when she decided it was time to exit the relationship. “I’d been there of my own will, and I left of my own will,” she said, then 94. “That’s what I told him once, before I left. I said: ‘Watch out, because I came when I wanted to, but I will leave when I want.’ He said, ‘Nobody leaves a man like me.’ I said, ‘We’ll see (source).'” Gilot and Picasso were parents to Claude and Paloma. The former is a photographer, cinematographer, and businessman. He also established the Picasso Administration to look after his father’s legacy. His younger sister, Paloma, is a fashion designer probably best known for her jewelry designs for Tiffany & Co.

Still more…

I think it’s almost unfortunate Gilot was involved with Picasso as that’s the context in which her art is viewed. But, she was painting long before him and long after him. After leaving Picasso, Gilot continued to evolve as an artist. In the years after, she began to explore a flatter approach to art leaving behind the Cubist influence of her earlier days. These flatter pieces also involved stronger colors and bold geometric shapes much like today’s art work. In 1970, Gilot would not only marry Jonas Salk (yes, that Jonas Salk) but would also begin the first of many solo museum exhibitions. She continued to stretch her artistic endeavors, producing a book, Sur la Pierre (On the Stone), in 1972 which featured her prints as well as her poetry. In 2021, her painting, Paloma à la Guitare (1965), sold at auction for $1.3 million.

“Gilot’s work is in the permanent collections of the Musee Picasso in Antibes, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Women’s Museum in Washington, DC, among others (source).”

In her words…

“’What I really learned in that first phase [of my career]: never again belong to a group, because in a group some people are always the leaders and they always want the others to conform, and I am a non-conformist,” Gilot told WHYY’s Terry Gross in an interview in 1988, on the occasion of the release of her book An Artist’s Journey. “I want to conform only to my own self and the deep desires that motivate me as an artist, and I couldn’t care less about whether the others are going that route or not. Ultimately, if I have lived my life as an artist right, my work—which I call ‘the artist’s journey’, which is a kind of pilgrimage toward my own centre, my own being—that’s the only thing that is important. And after all, I have enough of a following as it is, so I think I did the right thing (source).'”

A skosh more…

Gilot became a US citizen, but she received many national awards in France. Among these honors were being an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, an officer of the Order of National Merit, and an officer of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest order of merit. In addition to Claude and Paloma Picasso, Gilot had another daughter, Aurelia Engel who announced the passing of the artist on June 6, 2023. She was 101 years old.

About the art work…

Françoise Gilot used watercolors, gouache, and ink to produce “Suntan” in 1973. Gouache is a water-based medium similar to watercolors in that it can be rewetted. Unlike watercolor, gouache can dry down matte and is opaque. The painting measures 25 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches (64.8 x 49.5 cm) and is on paper. On May 18, 2023, the painting exceeded the auction estimate of $6,000-8000 and sold for $23,940 to a private collector.

My interpretation…

Once upon a time, I had the perfect dress for this particular challenge. Of course, it was more than 50 years ago! My mom had bought me a black, yellow, and white shirt dress with an abstract print. As soon as I saw this print I was reminded of that dress. I don’t even have any photos of it because I wasn’t really in love with it then. Today, if it even fit, I’d love it! Instead, I focused on the yellow in the art work and chose this linen dress (only in blue right now but on sale) from J Jill (also seen here). And, yes, I know my dress is wrinkled. I’m perfectly content with wrinkled linen!

The Lewk!

These Franco Sarto sandals are very old. I also have them in a cognac color. My necklace is made of different kinds of pearls (real and not real) and was a Mother’s Day gift from my kiddos many years ago. The earrings are by Kendra Scott and are also old.

Wrap it up, Marsha!

I absolutely loved this Style Imitating Art challenge! Françoise Gilot was an amazing woman in her own right. But, golly, she could certainly name drop if she had wanted to! You may have noticed I got a haircut last week. I’m still playing with it and trying to figure out how to get some volume into it. Too much product just weighs my hair down. If you have any tips, please drop me a line! So, can we talk? Was there anything you learned/knew about Françoise Gilot that had you gobsmacked? Did you know of the link between her and Picasso (and by extension Paloma Picasso)? Can you imagine if this woman had been left to her art from the age of five what she would have accomplished? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise I do respond as quickly as possible. You may or may not receive an email confirming my response. I don’t know what to do anymore about this situation. I was thinking about trying Disqus, but I’m having problems posting on some friends’ sites so that may not be a great fix, either!

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Thank you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am so glad you’re here…commenting, reading, emailing, subscribing, or following! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style, My Bijou LIfe, Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, The Grey Brunette, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, and Style Splash. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend with Michelle every Thursday. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

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