The Friends of Pilon Collection is a complex and open collection of works from artists who are somehow connected with Pilon or the Pilon Gallery.
This collection began before the establishment of the gallery itself in 1973 when some artists on their own initiative donated their work towards the gallery, whilst the extensive donation of Dominique Pilon in 1971 included the work of twelve of Pilon's immediate friends and acquaintances.

The gallery collection was considerably enriched after the first exhibition of works of the Friends of Pilon on the 10th. February 1978, which was staged after the second phase of the construction of the gallery's rooms was finished, when more than half of the exhibitors gave their work to this institution.

Much work was also gained from the periodic exhibitions of the thirty-five years of the Pilon Gallery, since on the occasion or after it

many artists donated their work; this practice continues to the present, and simultaneously reminds us that the collection of the works of the Friends of Pilon is not concluded, but is continually expanding and developing.

The repurchases also contribute to its enrichment, focussed above all on Pilon's times, and the gifts of other donors - more than ten owners of art works to the present day - amongst whom, besides Dominique Pilon, we should mention the architect neighbour of Pilon, Svetozar Križaj.

The collection of the works of the Friends of Pilon comprises 106 artists of various styles, generations and geographic locations, since it includes Pilon's immediate friends; as well those coevals with whom he associated in Gorica after the First World War, as well as the school friends he made during his studies in Prague, Florence and Vienna, and the new circle of people which he gathered around

him in the forty years of living in Paris.

Belonging to the latter, younger artists who only started their artistic path after the Second World War and were educated in the french capital in large numbers, mostly in the print-making workshops of Johnny Friedlaender and Stanley William Hayter, and there often looked for Pilon's company or help.

The artists of even younger generations who either did not know Pilon directly or were not his friends and they mostly come from the lines of donors from personal exhibitions, we can name as Friends of the Pilon Gallery, since long-term co-workers, frequent exhibitors and donors are amongst them.

The collection today totals 495 works from the fields of painting, sculpture, print-making, drawing, photography, architecture and graphic design. Drawing (207) and print-making (208), including sketch books and

folders with graphic prints, are clearly in the majority, whilst the less numerous painting (48) and sculpture (10) stand out by the quality of their art. The photographic stock (32) of the collection of the works of the Friends of Pilon has steadily expanded in the last few years due to the Castrumfoto photographic workshop.