Contemporary Artists | Period Artists (A-H) | Period Artists (H-Z)

Gilles Gorriti

Le Petit Piano Oil on canvas, 28 x 36 inches

A major figure in modern painting in France, Gilles Gorriti was born in Paris in 1939, the son of renowned artist Paul Aïzpiri.  Gorriti began drawing and painting at l’Atelier de la Grande Chaumière in 1955.  He then continued his education at l’Académie Julian.  While painting is Gorriti’s love, he is also an accomplished guitar and piano player.  Gorriti believes that music and painting are intertwined; they work together to assist in developing creative process.  Gorriti is passionate about Flamenco and classical music and when he works in his atelier in Paris there is always music playing.

At the age of seventeen, Gorriti organized his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Morval.  The following year he became a member of the Salon d’Automne where he has exhibited throughout his career.  In 1962, he was invited to exhibit at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture and that same year the City of Paris purchased one of his paintings. 

In 1965 his work appeared in the Fourth International Exhibition of Figurative Art in Japan, but it was not until 1969 that he made his first trip to the country.  Gorriti has continued to travel frequently to Japan, most recently in 1998 for two critically acclaimed shows in Tokyo.

Drawing inspiration from the unique light of the Côte d’Azur, Gorriti maintains a second atelier in Beauvallon.

He also spends two or three months each year in the land of his ancestry, the Basque country. “This is the country I love.  In the Basque country there is life all year”  Gorriti is a painter who believes that in creating mood and an emotional response in painting, color is more important that subject alone.  And as a colorist, Gorriti is a virtuoso in using the full range of his palette to create both subtle, unobtrusive fragments of delicate tones alongside vibrantly orchestrated blocks, which demand attention.

Gorriti’s striking interplay of colors is portrayed significantly yet with a contrasting serene subject matter.  His Mediterranean landscapes, street of Paris, his florals and intimate interiors hang in private collections throughout Europe, the United States and Asia.

Wally Findlay Galleries first exhibited the work of Gorriti in 1983 in Paris.  Wally Findlay Galleries in East Hampton hosted its Inaugural Exhibition in May of 1999 with Gilles Gorriti being chosen as the premiere exhibition artist.