Claude GILLI

Claude Gilli, famously recognized for his pop art period and his use of snails in his creations, is one of the most surprising artists to emerge from the École de Nice. Known as “the snail man”, Gilli graduated the École des Arts Décoratifs de Nice and has created various combinations of constructed objects. Among his famous pieces are his painted carvings and woodworks (such as Pin- up découpée, 1963); these tie him to the "École de Nice" and the "Nouveaux Réalistes" throughout the 1960s.
Gilli married Nicole Rondoni in 1960 and began presenting his works around the same time. The liftoff of his career and critical success, however, came on St. Sylvester’s night in 1962, when he displayed his works on the beaches of Nice and truly emerged onto the artistic scene.
With the support of Arman, who introduced him to the use of the electric handsaw, Gilli experimented with his first woodcarvings, "Coulées de peintures". These pieces granted him his first major success, and represent a union of painting and sculpture and often appear as spatial extensions of canvases. Gilli focused on subjects such as Nice, the body, and the blue of the sky, which is often overwhelming in the whole frame of the piece. The prominent use of blue is a trend throughout his oeuvre.

Gilli was awarded the Prix Lefranc, completed his first personal exposition at the gallery of Yvon Lambert in 1966, and took part in the "12 Super Réalistes" exhibition at Del Leone in Venice (1967). There, he discovered the works of American Pop masters such as Lichtenstein, Warhol and Wesselman.
During the 1970s, Gilli immersed himself in a work that broke his previous ties to painted woodcarvings. His "Tableaux fantômes", nearly transparent pieces made of plexiglas- emerged during this period, as well as his famous "Coulées d’escargots". For "Marée Noire" (1970), Gilli accumulated a huge collection of snails, snail shells, and real shells, mixing them all together in a black plastic bin. He coated the animals in water-based paint, and transposed the tracks they made onto canvas.
Gilli debuted his first steel sculptures during the 1980s. He was commissioned to create a massive sculpture for Nice’s Palais des Congrés, which forced him to abandon his woodcarvings and devote himself to the mastery of cutting and welding steel.
In later series, Gilli undertook subjects such as landscapes and low reliefs in welded, painted steel. He found further inspiration to “invade” the outside world with the creation of monumental steel sculptures. In the 1990s, Gilli returned to his woodcarving roots and began sawing works out of plywood or plexiglas, placing them on several planes and painting them in blue, green, yellow and pink. Such pieces serve as a reflection of the explosive colors and Pop tendencies of the "Nouveaux Réalistes". Gilli’s most recent high relief sculptures emphasize the volume and depth of their subjects, which have included female nudes, toilets, bottles and Mediterranean landscapes.

Pierre de Taillancourt

Selected Works

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