Jean-Paul Riopelle

Jean-Paul Riopelle was a Canadian painter and one of the most important artists his country has produced. Born in Montreal in 1923, he became part of a group of Quebec artists who broke with tradition to embrace pure abstraction. He then moved to Paris, where he developed his signature style of thick, mosaic-like patches of paint applied with a palette knife, building dense, glittering surfaces.

His energetic, all-over canvases connect him to both European abstraction and American action painting. Over a long career he also worked in sculpture, printmaking, and collage, drawing on nature, the north, and wildlife. Riopelle is celebrated as a giant of Canadian art, and his vibrant, tactile paintings are held in major collections around the world.