Hirondelle: marble sculpture by Emile Gilioli, circa 1957

French sculptor Émile Gilioli crafted each piece to polished perfection. His smooth marble and bronze abstract sculptures feature reflective surfaces, graceful curves and sudden, sharp lines and angles. And while Gilioli was obsessed with refinement in his three-dimensional work, his abstract prints and watercolors reveal a looser, more expressive approach. No matter the chosen medium, his inner artist always shone through.

Gilioli was born in 1911 to a family of Italian shoemakers living in Paris. When he was three years old, his family moved back to Italy and settled in Mantua, where young Gilioli was eventually employed at the local forge. After World War I, his family moved back to France and Gilioli attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and Beaux-Arts de Paris. He started working as a sculpture craftsman at 17 years old, and at 19, he joined the studio of Jean Boucher.

During World War II, Gilioli was stationed in Grenoble. There, he spent time at the Musée de Grenoble and was introduced to Cubism. Upon his return to Paris in 1945, he became one of the key figures in the city's burgeoning abstractionist movement. That same year, he held his first exhibition in Grenoble and also showed at two salons in Paris, in 1947 and ’49.

Gilioli eventually settled in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-la-Cluze, where he opened a sculpture atelier. Throughout the 1950s, he continued to pave the way for abstract sculpture in the country, frequently exhibiting with artists like Alicia Penalba, François Stahly and Étienne Martin. Throughout his long career, Gilioli designed many large sculptures for public spaces.

In 1997, to mark the 20-year anniversary of his death, the commune of Saint-Martin-de-la-Cluze purchased his workshop and home, turning the property into a museum to permanently display his creations.

Gilioli's sculptures and works on paper are held in museums in France and around the world, including the Musée de Grenoble, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

On 1stDibs, find Émile Gilioli prints, drawings, sculptures and more.