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LOT 018

AUTO CAS OC QMG RCA SCA
1923 - 2002
Canadian

Sans titre
watercolour and ink on paper on board, circa 1955
signed
14 3/4 x 40 7/8 in, 37.5 x 103.8 cm

Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000 CAD

Sold for: $40,950

Preview at: Heffel Vancouver

PROVENANCE
A gift from the Artist in Paris in the 1950s to Belle Burke, New York


As with his thickly painted drip and palette knife works, Jean-Paul Riopelle’s work in the aqueous medium of watercolour and ink also experiments with mark-making. In this horizontal format work, Riopelle has applied black ink onto a surface already washed with chromatically related hot reds and yellows. Large blots of ink, probably applied with a brush, are extended by spidery radiating lines and slashes. It is the application of these latter ink marks, with their vibrant energy, that makes this work so interesting. What tool has Riopelle used to give us these erratic, yet forceful marks? They are too solid to have been made with a brush, too controlled to have been dripped on, too tight to have been splattered. It is as if they have been applied with a stick, or perhaps an old paint-clogged brush that still has some softness to it, but which breaks and cracks the lines as they are applied to the paper’s surface. In looking closely at them, it is easy to be drawn into their organic energy, just as Riopelle was at the moment he made them.

This work is included as an addendum in Yseult Riopelle's online catalogue raisonné on the artist's work at http://www.riopelle.ca/


Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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