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Lot Essay
Painted in 1953, Untitled is a magnificent work on canvas that marks an important period in Riopelle's oeuvre. It was at this time that Riopelle developed what would become his signature style, applying and smearing the paint directly with his palette knife. With its intricate mosaic of colour and forms, the painterly surface of Untitled creates an intriguing interplay of contrasts. The resultant shimmering, kaleidoscopic surface, is filled with life, forcing the viewer's eye to dance across it. The surface is a shifting organism, a revelation in its own right. It is a record of sensation, a celebration of sight.
In Untitled, the contrasts between the paints fill the picture with an intense internal energy. This energy is heightened by the textured surface, the sweeping lines of paint squeezed onto the canvas, the array of gestures that Riopelle has employed in order to painstakingly and organically create the painting. The impastoed surface, the traces of the palette knife and the lines of pure paint from the tube instill in the viewer an intense awareness of the activity of the artist in applying the colours.
Riopelle created his paintings in an almost trance-like state. Indeed, the artist believed that to paint successfully, he had to by-pass his intellect, to avoid the rational thoughts that would make his work a representation instead of a product of Nature. "The painting must work itself out," he said. "It is a process... I am not one of those artists seeking a wonderful green... I never tell myself, for instance, that I have to paint like this or like that to get one effect or another. If I reach that point, I stop. It's dangerous... because then I am on the technical side of painting. There is always some solution to improve a painting that isn't working. But this does not interest me. It loses its emotional unity. Because technique will unfortunately always win out." (J.-P. Riopelle, quoted in M. Waldberg, Riopelle, The Absolute Gap, pp. 39-54).
In Untitled, the contrasts between the paints fill the picture with an intense internal energy. This energy is heightened by the textured surface, the sweeping lines of paint squeezed onto the canvas, the array of gestures that Riopelle has employed in order to painstakingly and organically create the painting. The impastoed surface, the traces of the palette knife and the lines of pure paint from the tube instill in the viewer an intense awareness of the activity of the artist in applying the colours.
Riopelle created his paintings in an almost trance-like state. Indeed, the artist believed that to paint successfully, he had to by-pass his intellect, to avoid the rational thoughts that would make his work a representation instead of a product of Nature. "The painting must work itself out," he said. "It is a process... I am not one of those artists seeking a wonderful green... I never tell myself, for instance, that I have to paint like this or like that to get one effect or another. If I reach that point, I stop. It's dangerous... because then I am on the technical side of painting. There is always some solution to improve a painting that isn't working. But this does not interest me. It loses its emotional unity. Because technique will unfortunately always win out." (J.-P. Riopelle, quoted in M. Waldberg, Riopelle, The Absolute Gap, pp. 39-54).