(1938)

Claude Gilli is born in Nice in 1938. He enters the School of Decorative Arts in Nice in 1955. In 1957, he meets Albert Chubac and his first exhibition is organized with him and Martial Raysse ("Painters of twenty years" at the gallery Longchamp Nice).
In the wake of Raysse, Gilli begins to work at the School of Nice in the sixties. Abandoning the painting to assemblages of constructed objects, he produces - from 1961 - a long series of "Ex-votos”; first work in painted carved wood, this period marks the commitment of the artist to the adventure of creation. The following year, Gilli burns almost everything he has done before, marking his commitment to establish a true starting point. Arman, Ben and Raysse allow him to participate in his first Parisian exhibition (Gallery Henriette Legendre), he makes the acquaintance of Robert Malaval. Gilli, in the early sixties, begin series of landscapes carved wood. The artist engages frantically in the use of the blue color, color found throughout his work. He participates in several exhibitions in Nice with Albert Chubac, Robert Malaval and Bernard Venet, and meets Jacques Matarasso who becomes one of his leading merchants.