29 x 36 in (73.7 x 91.4 cm) including frame
Jean Paul Riopelle stands as one of the few twentieth-century Canadian painters to achieve widespread international critical acclaim. Emerging from Montreal’s Automatiste movement and co-signing the 1948 Refus global manifesto, Riopelle established his studio in Paris, where his work aligned with European Tachisme and Lyrical Abstraction while developing in dialogue with American Abstract Expressionism. By the mid-1950s, Riopelle was exhibiting extensively on both sides of the Atlantic, represented by major dealers such as Pierre Loeb in Paris and Pierre Matisse in New York, and included in international surveys at the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Guggenheim Museum.
Painted in 1957, Antique belongs to a transformative phase in Riopelle’s painterly evolution. While his celebrated canvases of the early to mid-1950s were defined by uniform, all-over mosaics of pure prismatic color, his late-1950s output shifted toward greater structural dynamism, broader gestural planes, and a more focused tonal palette.
In Antique, Riopelle builds an active relief surface using his signature palette knife technique, applying heavy impasto in sweeping, decisive strokes. Bold bands of opaque white and deep earth tones dominate the composition, anchored by dark brown and charcoal grounds. Beneath and between these textured slabs of paint, flashes of primary red, cobalt blue, and bright yellow emerge, providing optical vibration and spatial depth across the picture plane. The faceted, directional marks intersect in dynamic diagonal and horizontal thrusts, balancing energetic movement with compositional stability. Documented in the artist's catalogue raisonné, Antique provides a resolved example of Riopelle’s mature gestural abstraction during the height of his international recognition.
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Edmonton
Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg
Private Collection, Winnipeg
Yseult Riopelle, Jean Paul Riopelle: Catalogue Raisonné, Tome 2, 1954–1959, Montreal: Hibou Éditeurs, 2004, reproduced p. 278, no. 1957.129H.1957.
Jean Paul Riopelle
Jean-Paul Riopelle had an avid interest in art growing up. When his parents noticed this, his family enrolled him in art classes, but they would go on to discourage his work in favor of a more reliable education. He grew up in a bourgeois household in Montreal as the son of a carpenter. His mother, Anna, had inherited properties from her father. Riopelle failed at the polytechnic that his parents wanted him to attend and moved on to the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled in the École du Meuble and took classes under Paul-Émile Borduas. Borduas pushed the young instructor to forge his own visual language and disregard the artistic conventions of Quebec at the time. Riopelle would go on to sign the ‘Refus Global’ manifesto written by Borduas in 1948, once again critiquing the stagnation of society in Quebec. It placed emphasis on passion rather than reason, which is a major theme in Riopelle’s work.
It was suggested by Hélène de Billy that the painter’s reluctance to use white was influenced by the death of his brother, Pierre, at a young age. The Catholic burial rites dictated that the clothes and objects buried with the deceased must be white, thus the color went on to remind Riopelle of his late brother. As Riopelle got older, white re-emerged in his work (for example in Untitled Abstract in White and Gray (1959), Sans Titre (1978) and L’heure feu follet (1956)). His colossal Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg (1992) paid tribute to his late companion, Joan Mitchell. The 30 panels were completed using spray paint, a medium Riopelle favored later in life.
Riopelle was criticized in university for confining himself to an academic approach in his art. This may be surprising, given the abstract style he later developed that went on to make him an icon in Canadian and Abstract art. Riopelle’s recognizable style was honed under Borduas and grew from his relationship with European surrealists. Wielding a palette knife, Riopelle applies the paint quickly with the acute precision of a master fencer. His application is angular and creates explosions of supreme color. While his style evolved throughout his career, his affinity for color never wavered. Bright pigments dominate his provincial compositions in the early 40s until the mid-1970s, where he began to experiment with a monochrome palette and bronze sculpture. His mature work towards the end of his life combined everything he had learned and paid homage to the artistic giants he had learned from in his youth. His mixed media pieces are imbued with mysticism and an austere reverence for life held by those towards the end of theirs.
Major Fall Fine Art Auction
November 12 - December 3, 2026
661 Wall St, Winnipeg MB
(204) 255-5690
mayberryfineart.com
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