Exhibition from July 9 to September 9, 2012
Claude Gilli is one of the pillars not only of the School of Nice but also of contemporary French art. His works from the 1960s, “at the border of pop art and op art” (Restany, 1967), have influenced many artists, particularly from the Nouveau Réalisme movement. Thus, his crushed paint tubes, from which colors emerge, would be revisited by Arman starting in 1966.
The Paint Flows will also inspire César, who would call them Expansions in 1967. Claude Gilli is also one of the pioneers of plexiglass sculpture (1968), a material that would, notably, be adopted by other artists from the School of Nice. His pale uncovered breasts are earlier than those that made Tom Wesselman, the American pop art artist, famous, just as his portraits of Marilyn Monroe, included in his Ex-voto, prefigure those of Andy Warhol…
Nearly forty years after organizing his first exhibition, the Galerie Ferrero pays tribute to the Nice artist who, despite a Parisian career, maintained a strong connection with his hometown. His landscapes, cut and painted on wood, are homages to the Mediterranean coast he so cherishes.
The exhibition title takes a quote from Arman in 1966: “Claude Gilli: born of the sun of the sea; gaze: a saw blade; constituents: color plus color, plus always color, cut, poured, spread, plus density, plus the hand. I like that.” Half a century later, we still love it. And so does the French Republic, which this year has awarded him the rank of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.
