Françoise Gilot "Yellow Flower" Painting
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GUEST:
Well, I know it's by Françoise Gilot. I know she was a mistress of Picasso, mother of Paloma Picasso.
APPRAISER:
Where did you get the painting?
APPRAISER:
At a PBS auction about 35, 40 years ago.
GUEST:
Well, it is signed down here in the lower left corner, "F. Gilot." And it does have a gallery label on the back from Dalzell Hatfield, which was a Los Angeles gallery, and it gives the title as "Yellow Flower." Now, Françoise Gilot was born in 1921. She was French, and she was introduced to art at an early age by her mother who taught her painting. But her mother would not teach her drawing because she thought people became too reliant upon erasers. And she taught her daughter that if you made a mistake in an artwork, you should just incorporate the mistake and make that as part of the artwork. When she was 21, she met Picasso and he was obviously a huge influence upon her work and they lived together-- she was his lover from 1944 to 1953.
GUEST:
She's still alive.
APPRAISER:
She's alive, yeah. And then she married Jonas Salk, who was the vaccine pioneer.
GUEST:
Wow, I didn't know that.
APPRAISER:
And Picasso's abstracted cubist works were a big influence on Françoise Gilot, but her lines were always a bit more organic, not as angular as his lines. And later on, she kind of developed her own style. Here, we can see the yellow flowers that are referred to in the title. But it's also a bit mysterious with these lines and-- I'm not sure-- this looks like it's probably a big leaf right here, but I'm thinking that it also looks like an artist's palette. So it's a little ambiguous, but it's a really fascinating work to see. Now, there's a lot of renewed interest in her work. She's really come out, I think, from under the shadow of Picasso, and the prices are beginning to reflect this. In May 2013, there were two works that brought over half a million dollars. Now, this is a work on paper. Those were oils. And one was a self-portrait, which was wonderful. But I think if this were to be offered in a retail gallery, it might sell for as much as $20,000.
GUEST:
Really? Oh, you're kidding. I only paid $125 for it. I can't believe it. That's amazing.
APPRAISER:
So it's a good reason to support PBS.
GUEST:
Yes, it is a good reason to support PBS.
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