Ripollés (1932) - Chica con abanico

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

Juan García Ripollés —known as Ripollés— was born in Alzira (Valencia, Spain) in 1932. His mother's death during childbirth led him to Castellón La Plana. His early years were not easy: he collected horse manure, worked as scrap metal peddler, and painted with a broad brush, until he moved to Paris in 1954. He wanted to be a painter. And there he achieved it.
Four years after his arrival, he managed to hang his canvases in the prestigious Drouant David gallery, the same one that had exhibited Picasso and Chagall.
Since his return to Spain in the 1960s, his studio is nature.
Today, at 92, he is still like that: 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 parks and in the main streets and squares of Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Venice, Verona, Hertogenbosch or Beijing.