Ripollés (1932) - Tamborilero

Engraving by Ripollés, hand-painted and signed, made in his Más de Flors workshop on Arches paper, pencil-signed in the lower right corner.

Juan García Ripollés —known as Ripollés— was born in Alzira (Valencia, Spain) in 1932. His mother's death at birth led him to Castellón La Plana. His early years were not easy: he collected 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 it was there that 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 sixties, his studio is nature.
Today, at 92, it still is: he paints in the orchard of his country house in the small hamlet of Más 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 main streets and squares of Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Venice, Verona, Hertogenbosch or Beijing.