Ripol - Abrazo

Engraving by Ripollés, painted and signed by hand, made on Arches paper in his workshop at Mas de Flors

Juan García Ripollés —known as Ripollés—, was born in Alzira (Valencia, Spain) in 1932. The death of his mother during childbirth led him to Castellón La Plana. His early years were not easy: he gathered horse manure, worked as a scrap dealer, and painted with a broad brush, until he moved to Paris in 1954. He wanted to be a painter. And that is where he achieved it.
Four years after his arrival, he managed to hang his paintings in the prestigious Drouand David gallery, the same one that had exhibited Picasso and Chagall.
Since returning to Spain in the 1960s, his studio is the countryside.
Today, at 92, it still is: he paints in the orchard of his manor in the small hamlet of Mas de Flors, in the province of Castellón.
During the last five decades, his canvases and engravings have been shown in the best galleries and museums in Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo, or Beijing.
His large-format sculptures have been installed in parks and in the main streets and squares of Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Venice, Verona, Hertogenbosch, or Beijing.