Ripollés (1932) - Violinista

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

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 de la Plana.
His early years were not easy: he gathered horse manure, worked as a junkman, 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 1960s, his workshop is nature.
Today, at 92 years old, 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 finest galleries and museums in Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo, or Beijing.
His large-format sculptures have been installed in the parks and in the main streets and squares of Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Venice, Verona, Hertogenbosch, or Beijing.