The Woman Who Says No

An intimate and revealing biography of the talented artist who dared to leave Picasso.

Françoise Gilot’s ex-lover Pablo Picasso called her “the woman who says no.” She may have spent her life in the company of men who changed the world—Picasso, Matisse, and Jonas Salk—but Gilot forged vital relationships with ground-breaking artists and scientists on her own terms, creating an artistic style all her own, translated into an enormous collection of paintings and drawings held by private collectors and public museums around the world. In her early nineties, she generously shared her hospitality and wisdom with writer Malte Herwig, who started out as an interviewer but found himself drawn into the role of pupil as Gilot, whom he called “a philosopher of joy,” introduced him to different ways of seeing the world.

Malte Herwig is a German-born writer, journalist, and literary critic. His articles have appeared widely in U.S., British, and German publications, including the New York Times, the Observer, Vanity Fair, and Der Spiegel.