No connection to server

Jean-Paul Riopelle on this spring's Modern Art + Design

No 373, Jean-Paul Riopelle ”Giboyeuse” (detail).

Forgotten emotions are put together in a cocktail-shaker

Modern Art + Design. Viewing: 17–21 May. Open: Mon–Fri 11–18, Sat–Sun kl 11–17. Sale: 22 May start 12.00 CEST.
Address: Bukowskis, Berzelii Park 1 in Stockholm. Read more about the auction here >


– Riopelle succeeds where memory fails. The intangible is given a body, desire a pictorial life. Objects astray, discarded impressions, forgotten emotions are put together in a cocktail-shaker and are poured out on the rocks in a Venetian glass of exquisite transparency in a splendid explosion.” (P. Boudreau, foreword, exhibition catalogue, Riopelle, London 1959)

French-Canadian artist Riopelle exhibited at the “Véhemences Confrontées” exhibition in 1951. The title roughly means “opposing forces” and is an apt one for this powerful individualist. Riopelle moved to Paris in 1947 where he came into contact with the Surrealism movement, although he deliberately did not join it. With his North American heritage, it is easy to draw parallels with American abstract expressionists such as Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock but Riopelle distanced himself from these movements too. His art is not intended to be rational or representational but is derived from an autonomous process that goes beyond the conscious, sometimes termed lyrical abstraction.

In the early 1950s Riopelle started to experiment by dropping and throwing oil paint on canvas. He developed this technique to eventually apply the paint with a palette knife in thick, very distinct fields of colour with a very impasto, sculptural surface.

In the 1950s Riopelle also made an international breakthrough, exhibiting at the Sao Paolo Biennial, Guggenheim NY and the Venice Biennale. The work auctioned, “Giboyeuse” was bought at the Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet’s Riopelle exhibition in Stockholm in 1959.

373. Jean-Paul Riopelle, "Giboyeuse".
373. Jean-Paul Riopelle, "Giboyeuse".
Hammer price 
1 500 000 SEK
Estimate
800 000 - 1 000 000 SEK

Contact:

Lena Rydén
Stockholm
Lena Rydén
Head of Art, Specialist Modern and 19th century Art
+46 (0)707 78 35 71
Andreas Rydén
Stockholm
Andreas Rydén
Head Specialist, Art, Deputy Managing Director
+46 (0)728 58 71 39
Carl Barkman
Stockholm
Carl Barkman
Head Specialist Fine Art and Antiques
+46 (0)708 92 19 71
Amanda Wahrgren
Stockholm
Amanda Wahrgren
Specialist Modern Art, Prints
+46 (0)702 53 14 89