Émile Gilioli was one of the pre-eminent sculptors of the new abstract movement in France in the 1950s.
He believed that the foremost challenge in sculpture was the synthesis of architecture and art, and that the choice of material, whether it be marble, onyx, bronze, lapis-lazuli, agate, alabaster or cement, was of utmost importance in shaping the form of the object.
Having studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in the 1930s, the influences of the pre-war Paris school of artists such as Brancusi and Henri Laurens clearly shine through in his work and after the World War Two he associated and exhibited with the leading avant-garde artists of the period including Giacometti, Picasso and Soulages. This included being vice-president of the leading abstract collective, Espace, initiated by André Bloch, Le Corbusier and Fernand Léger.
Gilioli went on to exhibit internationally, his work is held at major institutions such as Tate Modern, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo. Gilioli was honoured with a retrospective at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1979 after his death.