Benjamin Carteret & Sacha Llewellyn
Art historians, curators and writers
March-April 2025
- Literature
- Houston
- Los Angeles
- New York
“It is small wonder that Francoise Gilot used the nom de plume ‘Ariadne.’ By following the threads of our investigation through the labyrinth, we aim to recount three stories: the life of the artist, her approach to painting, and, in parallel, as (art) historians, the challenges we encounter in our Odyssey to discover who the true Francoise Gilot was.”
Sacha:
In ‘When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision’ (1972), the essayist and feminist Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) asserted that: ”Re-vision – the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction – is for women more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival”.
Through my work – curation, writing and my foundation RAW – I endeavour to give a voice to women and other marginalised artists who have been side-lined or written out of the art historical narrative. I have written numerous books for publishing houses (including Yale University Press and Lund Humphries), contributed to international catalogues (including for the National Gallery, London, the Musée de Montmartre, Paris, the National Museum of Gothenburg, Sweden) and written for the press (including The Guardian, The Telegraph and Condé Nast). I am currently working on a book, to be published in 2025 by Yale University Press, on Irish-British artist Gladys Hynes, publishing the autobiography of British surrealist Marion Adnams with the Walpole Society, while concurrently researching the life and work of Françoise Gilot, along with co-author, Benjamin Carteret.
Benjamin:
I am an author passionate about Antiquity and Greek mythology. After training in Art History and specializing in modern and contemporary art, I joined the workshop of Jean-Michel Othoniel with whom I worked for 8 years as head of communications, press relations and publishing. Since 2021, I have been working freelance to help various entities in the art world to develop their own mythologies: artists, foundations, museums, luxury houses or galleries.
At the same time, I am developing my artistic projects: in March 2024, I published my first novel with Charleston (Albin Michel), Persephone, a feminist Greek mythology retelling haunted by the urgency of contemporary questions linked to the ecological transformations of our time.
From May to July 2024, Galerie Villa Gabrielle in Paris held an exhibition of my mythological maps and in early June, I published my essay on Orpheus with Ateliers Henry Dougier. I am also working on a graphic novel on Jean Cocteau with Gabrielle Lavoir, supported by the Comité Cocteau, as well as on my second mythological novel. Finally, I am working with Sacha Llewellyn on a biographical investigation about the painter Françoise Gilot.
Sacha Llewellyn is an art historian, writer and curator. Focusssing primarily on women artists and surrealism, over a 25-year career she has published books, contributed to catalogues, written articles and curated exhibitions, In 2017, she was awarded the William M B Berger Prize for Art History. In 2022 she founded RAW (Rediscovering Art by Women), a radical platform that encourages discussion, open-mindedness and social progress through publications, research, blogs and contemporary artist sponsorship
Benjamin Carteret is an art historian, author and communications strategy advisor passionate about Antiquity and Greek mythology. He is working freelance to help various entities in the art world to develop their own mythologies: artists, foundations, museums, luxury houses or galleries. In 2024, he published two books: Persephone (Charleston), and I, Orpheus,(Ateliers Henry Dougier), and from May to July 2024, Galerie Villa Gabrielle in Paris held an exhibition of his mythological maps. Benjamin is currently working on a graphic novel on Jean Cocteau with the designer Gabrielle Lavoir, as well as on his next mythological novel.
Our book, à la recherche de Françoise Gilot (in search of Françoise Gilot) is a written odyssey in which we are at once detectives and archaeologists, weaving a narrative between fiction, investigation and biography. It recounts the passionate quest of two art historians to (re) discover the painter Françoise Gilot, (1921-2023), by following the artist’s own path. The journey meanders through Europe, Africa and the United States. Whether in the streets of Paris, on the beaches of Golfe Juan, the galleries of London, the deserts of the Sahara, Greek islands, the workshops and galleries of New York or the gardens of California, the colors of this shapeshifting painter resonate, as if she is still present. We are at once detectives and archaeologists, weaving a narrative between fiction, investigation and biography while offering a new, more inclusive reading of art history. Our goal is to celebrate Francoise Gilot as an artist, and in so doing to question existing assumptions that underwrite modern art history.
This book we are writing is being written in French but will be translated by us in English soon after. We are represented by Carla Briner-Mercier at Pontas agency for this book and are currently looking for a publisher. We have the full support of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
This investigation on the French American painter Françoise Gilot will take us to the USA since, after leaving Picasso in 1953, and finding herself banished from the country of her birth, Gilot took refuge in America. In this new environment, she could reinvent herself and become recognized as an artist in her own right. She married the famous scientist Jonas Salk in 1970 and lived between La Jolla (CA) and New York (NYC) until her death in June 2023. During our time in the USA, we aim to meet the people who hold the clues to our quest: her gallerist, her assistant, her walker, her daughters and her collectors. We will also visit the places where she lived, and worked, to better understand the details of her day-to-day life. We want to visit her studio in NYC, the Jonas Salk Institute in La Jolla, Carlton Lakes’ archives at The Austin University of Texas, museums and private collections where her work is held, and the Berman Museum in Pennsylvania (where her assistant’s archives are kept). That is why we have chosen to spend time in New York, Philadelphia, Houston and San Diego-La Jolla – so that we can weave together the essential parts of her life in America, to compliment the research we have already undertaken on her life in Europe.
In partnership with
Centre Pompidou
Since 1977, the Centre Pompidou has presented a rich programme at the crossroads between different art forms and audiences. Its iconic building is home to one of the world’s largest modern and contemporary art collections, in addition to exhibitions, symposiums, festivals, shows, projections, and workshops for young audiences, making it an unparalleled cultural institution, deeply rooted in the cultural fabric of Paris and open to the world and to new innovation.