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Claude Gilli

"One day, the subject goes out of the frame in which he was a prisoner."

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Notes of biography

Claude Gilli is born in Nice in 1938. He enters the School of Decorative Arts in Nice in 1955. In 1957, he meets Albert Chubac and his first exhibition is organized with him and Martial Raysse ("Painters of twenty years" at the gallery Longchamp Nice).
In the wake of Raysse, Gilli begins to work at the School of Nice in the sixties. Abandoning the painting to assemblages of constructed objects, he produces - from 1961 - a long series of "Ex-votos”; first work in painted carved wood, this period marks the commitment of the artist to the adventure of creation. The following year, Gilli burns almost everything he has done before, marking his commitment to establish a true starting point.
Arman, Ben and Raysse allow him to participate in his first Parisian exhibition (Gallery Henriette Legendre), he makes the acquaintance of Robert Malaval. Gilli, in the early sixties, begin series of landscapes carved wood. The artist engages frantically in the use of the blue color, color found throughout his work. He participates in several exhibitions in Nice with Albert Chubac, Robert Malaval and Bernar Venet, and meets Jacques Matarasso who becomes one of his leading merchants.
Arising out of his earliest works, a desire to leave the "framework" of the painting is expressed in his art, desire ever-present throughout his work. In a similar spirit, Claude Gilli performs the "Showcases" cutting volumes in thin planks of violently colored wood. In 1965, he also experiments with his first carved wood "Coulées" which enables him to be successful.
Letterings appear in the cuttings of Claude Gilli in 1966, lettering borrowed from the world of teaching. That same year, his first solo exhibition is held at Gallery Yvon Lambert. In 1967, he participates in the exhibition "12 Great Realists" in Venice Gallery Del Leone, where he makes the discovery of the work of American Pop Art (Lichtenstein, Warhol, Wesselman). Gilli starts a new work phase in rupture with the previous period of colored wood, and his first work on transparent plexiglass appears in 1968. From 1969 to 1971, Gilli experiences working with "Snails" which he says have met on the Saleya market (Nice). He realizes castings, snails invading the surface of the table, then watercolors, by the necessity of means imposed by gastropods.
The artist settles down in Paris in 1970. In 1981, a first retrospective at the Museum of Nice (Gallery Ponchettes) reveals for the first time all of his work.
In 1985, the first steel sculptures of Claude Gilli appear; in successive series, the artist shows landscapes, bas-reliefs of painted welded steel. He also creates a monumental sculpture for the city of Nice. Claude Gilli has certainly participated in the adventure of the School of Nice. His name can also be associated with the affirmation of the New Realism in France.
Claude Gilli died in 2015.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
Non réalisé à ce jour. All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Claude Gilli - Escargots », cat. d'expo., Ed. Galerie d'Aujourd'Hui, 1968
  • « Gilli », cat., G. Xuriguera, Ed. Galerie d'Art Contemporain de Nice, 1981
  • « C. G., La poèsie au ras du sol », P. Restany, Ed. Galilée, 1982
  • « Le Roman de l'Ecole de Nice », collectif, Ed. de La Différence, 1991
  • « L’école de Nice », Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1995
  • « Rétrospective », collectif, Ed. Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, Nice, 1995
  • « Gilli : Ex voto-Cibles-Paysages », collectif, catalogue, MAMAC de Nice, 1999
  • « Claude Gilli », cat. d'expo., Villa Tamaris, La Seyne-sur-Mer, 2003
  • « Gilli, works from 1963-1966 », M. Roudillon, Mayor Gallery, Londres, 2007
  • « C. Gilli : Présence-Absence », cat., Jean Corbu, galerie Rive Gauche-M. Strouk, 2013
To read from the artist :
  • « Connaître la sculpture de C. Gilli », entretien, Ed. Fr. Rolin, Paris, 1990
  • « R. Malaval, rétrospective », Ed. MAM et d'Art Contemporain, Nice, 1995
Website :
No website dedicated to the artist.

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Art movements

+ SCHOOL OF NICE / 1965-1975 / Jean-Claude Farhi, Robert Filliou, Roland Flexner, Serge III, Pierre Pinoncelli, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover