COLLEGEVILLE, PA.- The Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College is honored to be the recipient of a major bequest from renowned artist Françoise Gilot. Gilot will donate a number of portraits of historical artistic, political, and literary leaders, including those which define her long career.

The unprecedented gift builds on the strong collaboration the Berman Museum established with Gilot during the last two decades.

“Since the founding of the Berman Museum of Art in 1987, the work of Françoise Gilot has been an integral part of the permanent collection,” said Berman Museum Director Lisa Tremper Hanover .

“Gilot is still painting,” Hanover continued, “and in support of the Campaign for the Expansion of the Berman Museum of Art, will present a portfolio of drawings and works on paper, portraits from her private collection of artists, literary figures, scientists, and family members created throughout her career.” The gift includes her earliest self-portrait in oil painted in 1939.”

Gilot, said Hanover , has long been a proponent of enabling the Museum to showcase its permanent collection and to increase educational space. A planned addition of striking new spaces in the Museum would support an open storage system to promote access to objects, a works on paper study area for flat storage, an auditorium and new galleries including a rooftop gallery for outdoor sculpture, all furthering the educational mission of Ursinus College.

On the occasion of the Berman expansion campaign launch last fall, Gilot said, “Thanks to the Bermans, Dr. Strassburger (College President John Strassburger), and to Lisa Tremper Hanover , I had the opportunity to exhibit at the Museum three times. I met with the students and could appreciate how they benefited from direct contact with the art collection, the artists and the exhibitions.”

Museum founders Philip and Muriel Berman began to collect her work in the 1960s. She visited the Ursinus College campus when her husband, Jonas Salk, received an honorary Doctor of Science degree on Founder’s Day in 1991, and she and Hanover successfully began the planning of a major exhibition in 1995. The Museums published the catalogue raisonné, Stone Echoes: Original Prints by Françoise Gilot, to accompany the exhibition. Along with her husband, Gilot’s children, Paloma Picasso and Claude Picasso attended this exhibition, which traveled to additional venues. Its success was acknowledged by a generous gift from the artist, and several donors made gifts of oils, drawings, monotypes, and prints to strengthen the Museum’s already substantial holdings. In 1997 the Berman Museum of Art hosted a second major exhibition titled For Ever and A Day: Floating Paintings and Monotypes by Françoise Gilot, which drew large crowds and critical recognition. The exhibition Françoise Gilot: 1940-1950 in 2001, defined her formative years as a painter. She received an honorary degree from the College on this occasion.

A special invitation-only event will celebrate this remarkable donation in March 2008.

Further demonstrating the continuing partnership between Gilot and the Berman Museum , Mel Yoakum, Ph.D., Director of the F. Gilot Archives, has joined the Art Museum Advisory Board. Yoakum, a curator, writer and recognized authority on the works of Gilot, is the author of Stone Echoes: Original Prints by Françoise Gilot – A Catalogue Raisonné (1995); the monograph Françoise Gilot 1940-2000 (2001); and Françoise Gilot: Painting – Malerei (2003), as well as numerous exhibition catalogue essays and articles.

“We have enjoyed a special collaboration with The F. Gilot Archives and with Françoise,” Hanover said. “Her explorations of color, shape and strength of line have established her as an important 20th century artist. Mel has been a vital resource in developing these connections, and we look forward to his enhanced role as an advocate for the Museum.”

The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus, known for its diverse collection and innovative educational programming, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; noon to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, and closed Mondays and college holidays. The museum is accessible to the physically disabled and admission is free. The museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Exhibitions and programs are funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For group tour information, call 610-409-3500.

Ursinus College is a highly selective, independent coeducational liberal arts college located on a scenic, wooded 170-acre campus, 28 miles from Center City Philadelphia. The college is one of only 8 percent of U.S. Colleges to possess a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Its web site is located at . The College is located on Main Street in Collegeville.