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Jean-Paul Riopelle

Induction Year

2000

Pillar of Achievement

Arts & Entertainment

Life and Legacy

Oct 7, 1923Mar 12, 2002 (78 years)

Birth Place

Montréal, Quebec

Born in Montréal in 1923, Riopelle is accomplished as an abstract painter, sculptor and graphic artist. Riopelle studied at L’ecole des Beaux-Arts, and with Henri Bisson at L’ecole du Meuble.

While still a student, he became integral to Québec’s emerging Automatistes school of painting, in which surrealistic painting techniques are used to express the patterns of the unconscious. Together with his life-long friend and colleague, photographer Maurice Perron, Riopelle was also a founding member of the revolutionary Refus Global, which challenged the traditional values of Québec’s post-war society.

In 1946, Riopelle moved to Paris, where he embraced the emerging Tachist movement and its spontaneous approach to abstract expressionism. Later in his career, Riopelle further refined his technique with his daring and imaginative use of white space to create an expansive effect. He also focused on the evolution of his sculpting talent, culminating with his masterpiece La joute, created for the site of the 1976 Montréal Olympics.

The list of citations, prizes and honorary degrees awarded to Jean-Paul Riopelle over the past six decades is long enough to fill a book. Highlights include his being awarded the 1958 Prix International Guggenheim and, in 1962, the coveted Unesco prize. In Canada, Riopelle’s many accolades include the 1973 Philippe Hébert Prize and, in 1975, induction as a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Interesting Facts

His paintings, sculptures, and lithographs, treasured by collectors around the globe, grace the permanent collections of the world’s finest galleries and museums, including New York’s Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, the Galerie d’art Moderne in Basel, Switzerland, the Museum of Modern Art in Brazil, Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario, and Ottawa’s National Gallery. There they will long remain testament to Canadian genius.

Photo Highlights