JOAN GARCÍA RIPOLLÉS (Castellón, 1932). Lot n° 6

JOAN GARCÍA RIPOLLÉS (Castellón, 1932). "Maternity". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Measurements: 89 x 116 cm., 115 x 146 cm. Certificate of authenticity of the artist is attached. Known by his second surname or as "the Blessed Ripo", Joan García Ripollés discovered his passion for painting when, while still very young and in the middle of the post-war period, he started working in an industrial painting workshop. From then on he devoted himself to painting at night, and later took drawing classes at the Ribalta secondary school in Castellón. After his debut in a collective exhibition held in 1951 at the Caja de Ahorros de Castellón, 1954 was a turning point in his career, as a result of a trip to Paris where he made contact with the artistic circles of the city. He organised his first important individual exhibition at the MACBA in Barcelona in 1962, and in 1967 he travelled to New York, where he exhibited and sold his entire collection to The William Haber Art Collection. From that moment on he embarked on a dazzling international career that has taken his work all over the world. He has organised solo exhibitions not only in Spain, Paris and New York, but also in Mexico, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, various American cities, Germany and Japan. In 2000 he was awarded the Premio de las Artes de la Comunidad Valenciana. Ripollés is today one of the most international Spanish artists, and also one of the most complete, as he has worked brilliantly in painting, sculpture and engraving. He is represented in the IVAM, the MOMA in New York, the Museum of the University of Alicante, the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville and the MACBA.