Life with Picasso

by Françoise Gilot

Louis Hellman's unique method of describing the work of an architect by drawing their head in the style of their building is known the world over. The drawings have been an enormous success, and have been converted into postcards, posters, and calendars, yet this is the first time they will be displayed in a book.

373 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2000

About the author

Françoise Gilot is a French painter, critic, and author. In 1973 Gilot was appointed as the Art Director of the scholarly journal Virginia Woolf Quarterly. In 1976 she was made a member of the board of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California. She held summer courses there and took on organizational responsibilities until 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s she designed costumes, stage sets, and masks for productions at the Guggenheim in New York. She was awarded a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, in 1990.

She is also known as the lover and artistic muse of Pablo Picasso from 1943 to 1953; the pair had two children, Claude (1947-2023) and Paloma (1949-). She later married the American vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk.

She passed away June 6, 2023 in Manhattan (New York).

Reviews

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This drags a little bit in some parts, but it is truly an excellent portrait of an abusive narcissist and how draining of an effect they can have on someone's life. From the verbal abuse to the almost childlike temperament to the way he prevented Francoise's art from flourishing after she left him...This book made me strongly dislike Picasso, maybe a bad personality and a horrible ego is just apart of being a genius.