(Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France) Created in 1964 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence by two art dealers and collectors totally in love with artists, the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation marks the centenary of the birth of Jean Paul Riopelle this summer with Parfums d’ateliers, a program that includes an exhibition, a dance performance, concerts and film screenings dedicated to the Quebec artist.
It is a remarkable tip of the hat that Riopelle receives in Provence on the occasion of the celebrations of the 100 years that he would have had this year. The artist who died in 2002 is honored by the descendants of Marguerite and Aimé Maeght (pronounced “mague”), the gallery owners who took him under their wing in the 1960s. The Maeght Foundation has taken the initiative of an exhibition of 180 works which illustrate Riopelle’s eclecticism.
Located on the sides of a hill, in the middle of maritime pines, the Foundation had already presented exhibitions by Riopelle in 1970 and 1990. Parfums d’ateliers, which Yseult Riopelle took two years to put together, allows us to find him always on the move, inspired by life’s experiences, nature and its unique outlook on things. A very personal exhibition, almost family, marked by friendship and respect. With paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, lithographs, collages and tapestries. A deployment in collaboration with the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation.
“Dad told me the day before yesterday that Jean Paul was so happy to work at the printing office that when we told him that we were going to close because it was 5 p.m., there was no way he was going, says Isabelle Maeght, daughter of Adrien Maeght, himself the son of Marguerite and Aimé Maeght. Jean Paul worked a lot. Dad had finally put him in a room on the second floor! We didn’t want him to take the road at night to return to Vétheuil. So welcome to Jean Paul who spent months here! »
The exhibition is a rich condensed retrospective of Riopelle’s studio work, presented in thematic rooms and in the gardens of the Foundation. With ceramic works made in France. Riopelle’s Nordic inspirations. The influence of Matisse. Its string games. His charcoals, his pastels. Lithographs from his Suite series. And the spectacular Chevreuse (301 cm x 391 cm) that the Center Pompidou has agreed to lend for the first time.
“We organized this exhibition on the initiative of my father, to celebrate Riopelle, because for us, it is an obligation to pay tribute to the great artists who made the 20th century, says Isabelle Maeght. Without them – Braque, Calder, Miró, Giacometti, Tàpies, Riopelle or even Chagall – our young artists would have no references. Exhibiting Riopelle is obvious. We defend our work, because recognition is due to it. I have so many memories, when we were little, with Yseult, at Margot’s or on Jean Paul’s boat, in Golfe-Juan [seaside resort on the Côte d’Azur]…”
Among the sculptures installed in the gardens, two enamelled lavas belong to the Magnelli Museum in Vallauris, located between Antibes and Cannes.
In addition to the exhibition, a dance performance will be presented at the Foundation by the French dancer and choreographer Noé Soulier, on July 20 and 21, in sets made from sketches that Riopelle had imagined in 1967 when Yseult Riopelle danced with the New York troupe.
The Foundation publishes a solid and magnificent catalog of some 300 pages on the exhibition, signed by Yseult Riopelle and the museologist and Riopelle specialist André Hénault.
For Manon Gauthier, Executive Director of the Riopelle Foundation, this exhibition is a “good return to basics”. Because it was while visiting the workshops of the Maeght Foundation that Jean Paul Riopelle had begun to dream of a Riopelle Foundation, which he envisaged as “a place of work” to protect and perpetuate old artistic professions such as engraver or ceramist. .
“Michael Audain [great Canadian patron and collector of works by Riopelle] also had the idea for his Foundation and his museum in Whistler when he came here,” adds Yseult Riopelle. “And my grandparents had the idea of creating a Foundation when they discovered American foundations during a trip to the United States! adds Jules Maeght. So there are handovers, transmissions like that, on both sides of the Atlantic! »
It should be noted that the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) is also the guest of the Maeght Foundation and presents there this summer a special program around Riopelle, with five short films inspired by the creative process and themes dear to Quebec artist.
It is with this report in Provence that I sign my last article as a permanent journalist at La Presse. I would like to thank my colleagues who have made my 31 years in this journal a privileged professional experience. I also thank my dear readership for their trust and support over all these years. Serving you will have been a great challenge and an immense pleasure. Finally, I cannot forget the artists, curators, gallery owners, directors of museums and art centers with whom I have loved working for 12 years. I will continue to collaborate on occasion with La Presse, as a freelancer. I wish you a happy Canada Day, a good summer and great exhibition visits!
