Jean-Paul Riopelle valuation
Signed Quebec's Refus Global, moved to Paris, and built mosaics of paint with a palette knife.
Jean-Paul Riopelle was born in Montreal in 1923 and was one of the signatories of Refus Global in 1948, the manifesto by the Automatistes that attacked the grip of the church on Quebec society and effectively ended several of its authors' careers there.
What a work by Jean-Paul Riopelle is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Bio
Jean-Paul Riopelle was born in Montreal in 1923 and was one of the signatories of Refus Global in 1948, the manifesto by the Automatistes that attacked the grip of the church on Quebec society and effectively ended several of its authors' careers there. He moved to Paris, where Breton showed him and where he became one of the best-known North American painters in Europe. The mature work of the 1950s builds a dense mosaic of small palette-knife strokes across the entire canvas. He lived with Joan Mitchell for twenty-five years, returned to Quebec, and died there in 2002.
The 1950s mosaic paintings lead this market decisively, which is centred on Canada with a substantial French component. The paint is applied very thickly with a knife and is structurally heavy, so cracking, cupping and losses at the edges are common and should be assessed properly. Riopelle also worked extensively in watercolour, ink, collage and lithography, and there is a very large printed output. The catalogue raisonne prepared by Yseult Riopelle is the reference, and forgeries are a known problem in the market.
At a glance
- Born
- 7 October 1923, Montreal
- Died
- 12 March 2002, Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues
- Movements
- Les Automatistes, Surrealism
More on Wikipedia.
Borduas, Pierre Matisse and Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg
Riopelle studied under Paul-Émile Borduas in the 1940s and was one of the Automatistes. He received an honourable mention at the São Paulo Biennial in 1952, was in Younger European Painters at the Guggenheim in 1953, and from 1954 showed with the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. In Paris his circle included André Breton, Sam Francis and Samuel Beckett.
From 1959 he and Joan Mitchell lived near Giverny in separate houses and studios. He returned to Quebec in 1972, and in 1981 became the first signatory of Refus Global to receive the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas. Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, painted in 1992 after Mitchell's death, is regarded as the high point of his late work, and he made more than six thousand works in all.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
