SURREALISM/1924-1969 / Oscar Dominguez, Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, etc. SCHOOL OF PARIS/1945-1960 / Jean Degottex, Georges Mathieu, Nicolas de Staël, etc. LYRIC ART, ABSTRACT, TACHISM / 1950-1960 / Jean Degottex, Georges Mathieu, Jackson Pollock, Emil Schumacher, Emilio Vedova, etc.
Jean-Paul Riopelle was born in Montreal, Canada in 1923. From childhood he starts to draw and paint. He studies at the Polytechnic School, then spends a brief and disappointing period at the School of Fine Arts and at the Furniture School in Montreal. Riopelle trains mainly under Paul-Emile Borduas who is at the top of the avant-garde and surrealismists. Riopelle produces his first abstract works in the middle of the 40’s, during which time the artist participates in with a group who called themselves the ‘Canadian Automatists’. He starts to exhibit with the group in 1946.
He moves to Paris where he is quickly recognized. He meets Andre Breton, signs the surrealist leaflet ‘Rupture Inaugurale’ (Inaugural Rupture). In 1947 he drafts the essay of the manifesto of the Canadian Automatists ‘Refus global’ (Global refusal). He briefly associates with the surrealists and exhibits with the group in 1947. Riopelle though has more affinity to the Lyrical Abstraction group. His first solo exhibition takes place at the Dragon Gallery in Paris in 1949. In this same year, he participates in the exhibition ‘Vehemences Confrontees’ (Confronted Vehemence) with Pollock, Rothko, Mathieu, Sam Francis, Tobey, Hans Hartung, etc.
At the beginning of the 50’s, Pierre Loeb, the reputed gallery owner, buys all of his works. From 1952 to1953 Jean-Paul Riopelle exhibits in Paris with Pierre Loeb, Jacques Dubourg and Jean Fournier, and in New York at the Pierre Matisse Gallery. Thanks to his friendship with the art historian George Duthuit, he meets everyone who is important in the Parisian art world (Sam Francis, Mathieu, Nicolas de Staël, etc.) and in the literary world (Artaud, Beckett and Aime Cesaire). He is now considered as of the of he most important painters of the School of Paris.
In the 60’s, Riopelle diversifies his means of expression, utilizing ink on paper, watercolor, lithography, collage and oil. It is in the middle of the 60’s that the artists starts to collaborate with the Maeght Gallery, he will from now on exhibit here regularly. His international career takes on a whole new dimension. Important retrospectives of his work are organized worldwide. He receives the Paul-Emile Borduas prize in 1981.
Riopelle leaves France in 1989. In 1992, an homage to the American painter Joan Mitchell who has just died and who has been his friends for 25 years, he executes one of his last opulent works ‘Hommage to Rosa Luxemburg’. Riopelle is considered as a giant in the history of art in the second half of the 20th century; his works can be seen in the best museum collections around the world.
Jean-Paul Riopelle lived in Quebec during the last years of his life and died on Crane Island in 2002.
Riopelle leaves France in 1989. In 1992, an homage to the American painter