The Glacier - Emile GILIOLI (1911-1977)

"Perlino rosato" polished marble
signed to underside "Gilioli"
and dated "61"

France
1961
height 27 cm
width 29 cm
depth 20 cm

Provenance :
World House Galleries, New York, 1962;
Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York, 1962-1966;
Donation to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington;
Christie's, sold by order of the trustees of the Hirshhorn Museum, 1994.

Biography :
Émile Gilioli (1911-1977) was a French sculptor. He was one of the leaders of French post-war abstract sculpture, alongside Brancusi and Arp. Born into a family of Italian shoemakers living in Paris, they moved to Nice after the World War I. In 1932, Émile Gilioli took lessons at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice, notably with the future artist Marie Raymond. During World War II, Gilioli was mobilized in Grenoble where he spent the remainder of the war. He met Andry Farcy, curator of the Grenoble Museum of Fine Arts, and introduced him to cubism.

After the war, Émile Gilioli moved to Saint-Martin-de-la-Cluze, near Grenoble, where he sculpted in his workshop. His art was associated in a way with facts of the French Resistance. In 1947, he exhibited at the Salon des ‘Réalités Nouvelles’ in Paris. In 1949, he participated in the first Salon de la ‘Jeune sculpture’ in the garden and the chapel of the Rodin museum in Paris. The first salon hosted 63 sculptors including Émile Gilioli, Emmanuel Auricoste, Étienne Hajdu, Baltasar Lobo and Berto Lardera.

From 1954, Gilioli took part in group exhibitions with other artists. In 1956, he moved to Vaugirard, a district where many artists then resided. In 1971, he created four sets for limited edition plates at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres. In 1997, for the twentieth anniversary of his death, the municipality of Saint-Martin-de-la-Cluze decided to acquire the house and workshop of Émile Gilioli, thus responding to the wishes expressed by Babet Gilioli, his wife, to create a place in memory of the artist.