artists
Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002)
Jean-Paul Riopelle, was a painter and sculptor born in Montreal in
1923. He was regarded as Canada’s most important modern artist.
After studying painting at the École des Beaux-Arts and École du
Meuble in Montreal from 1943 to 1945, Riopelle moved to Paris in
1947. There he associated with Surrealists such as André Breton and
Marcel Duchamp and, with Paul-Émile Borduas, became associated with
the group of Canadian painters known as Les Automatistes, He was one
of the signers of the Refus global manifesto. In France Riopelle
gained international recognition.
His early lyrical, abstract paintings evolved into a denser, more
powerful impasto style.
He is renowned for his use of various media (including watercolor,
ink, oils, crayon, and chalk), and he also produced large collage
murals. He represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1954 and
achieved international acclaim with the huge triptych Pavane (1954).
Riopelle’s work was chosen for the Venice Biennale in 1962 and was
awarded the UNESCO prize that year. In 1963 the National Gallery of
Canada, Ottawa, exhibited 82 of his paintings and sculptures; at age
40 Riopelle became the youngest artist to be given a retrospective
exhibition at the gallery. He spent most of his time in Paris but
returned to Canada in the early 1990s, settling permanently
in Quebec. He remained a prolific artist in the last decade of his
life, and his work became more representational, with the suggestion
of landscape marked in many of his paintings. In 2000 he produced
his last major work, Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, a narrative fresco of
30 paintings that was more than 40 meters (130 feet) long.
This work is now on display at the Musée national des beaux-arts du
Québec in Quebec City.
Jean Paul Riopelle died at his home on Îsle-aux-Grues on March 12,
2002.
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