Vérone

Jean-Paul Riopelle’s "Vérone" (1955) is a powerful, vibrant example of the Canadian artist’s signature Abstract Expressionist style, often called Lyrical Abstraction. Like many of his works from this period, the painting is an abstract composition created using the impasto technique, where the paint is applied in extremely thick, dense layers, often squeezed directly from the tube and spread with a palette knife. The title, "Vérone" (Verona, Italy), is not a literal depiction of the city, but rather an evocation of the sensory experience or the memory of the light and atmosphere Riopelle associated with the place. This intense saturation and frenetic energy embody the post-war desire for spontaneous, non-representational art. The meaning of the work is found in its materiality and emotional charge, reflecting the artist's feeling of freedom and his pursuit of a universal visual language through the expressive power of paint itself.