Sold for: $181,250

PROVENANCE
Galerie Jacques Dubourg, Paris
Ienesco Auction, Neuilly, France, May 10, 1990, lot 77
Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Maîtres québécois, Waddington and Gorce Gallery, 1989, reproduced on the invitation
Yseult Riopelle, Jean Paul Riopelle Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 2, 1954 - 1959, 2004, reproduced page 302, catalogue #1958.073H.1958
Robert Miller Gallery, Jean Paul Riopelle, 2005, reproduced unpaginated

EXHIBITED
Waddington and Gorce Gallery, Maîtres québécois, Montreal, 1989
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Jean Paul Riopelle, March 31 - April 30, 2005

The 1950s were a remarkable and important period for Jean Paul Riopelle – it was a decade fueled by his immersion in the feverish Parisian art scene, which ignited his brilliant international career. This exceptional palette-knife work, Confins, is from this significant period, and the passion of that artistic environment is visibly reflected in the work, with its tight, compressed knife strokes pushing, pulling and dancing across the surface. Confins is a powerful storm of colours - strokes of white, black and blue are punctuated with bright slashes of cobalt and mustard in the centre, cornered by the fiery red in the upper right, which is subtly woven throughout the rest of the work. The title Confins translates to Borders, a very fitting title for a work by an artist who transcended international boundaries throughout his acclaimed career. The provenance of this work also speaks to his worldly nature, as it was once sold by Jacques Dubourg, a well-known art dealer in Paris that also represented Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell and Georges Mathieu, among others. Confins is a painting that we are privileged to have on Canadian soil.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars