Contemporary art Les Automatistes
Jean-Paul Riopelle
Montréal 07.10.1923 — Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues 12.03.2002
Jean-Paul Riopelle was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the Refus Global, the 1948 manifesto that announced the Quebecois artistic community's refusal of clericalism and provincialism. He is best known for his abstract painting style, in particular his "mosaic" works of the 1950s when he famously abandoned the paintbrush, using only a palette knife to apply paint to canvas, giving his works a distinctive sculptural quality. He became the first Canadian painter since James Wilson Morrice to attain widespread international recognition.
1923–2002