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Oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm, framed. Signed lower right 'riopelle'. - Minor traces of age. Yseult Riopelle, Tanguy Riopelle 1964.039H.V1964 Provenance: Private Collection, Italy "There is no abstraction nor is there representation: there is only expression, and to express oneself is to look at things and face them." (Jean-Paul Riopelle, in: Yseult Riopelle (ed.), Jean-Paul Riopelle, vol. 1, 1939-1953, Catalogue raisonné, Montreal 1999, p.18) When Jean-Paul Riopelle created this painting, he was at the height of his artistic career. Two years earlier he had taken part in the Venice Biennale and had received the UNESCO Award. In 1963, at the age of 40, he was the youngest artist to be given a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. His oeuvre shows evidence of a stylistic proximity to Automatism and above all to Abstract Expressionism - a position which came not least from his relationship with the American artist Joan Mitchell. Many of his paintings can in fact be understood as homage to Jackson Pollock, the "Father of Action Painting", who had died in a fatal accident in 1956. A contemporary witness, who had observed Riopelle at work, graphically describes how the artist applied his paint from three or four tubes which he held in his hands at the same time. He would work at great speed, squeezing the paint directly onto the canvas and then spreading it with fast movements, using a spatula. (Cf. Monique Brunet-Weinmann, "La Matière, la Main, the Matter, the Hand", in: Yseult Riopelle (ed.), Jean-Paul Riopelle, vol. 3, 1960-1965, Catalogue raisonné, Montreal 2009, p.18) In this instance, his work led to a highly dynamic painting in which he had applied several layers of thick paint to the entire surface and had then spread it out energetically with his spatula and sometimes even with his fingers. In some places Riopelle pressed the paint all the way through the canvas, whereas elsewhere he left numerous drips to pile up in a paste-like mass. We cannot make out any preferred direction, as the paint was applied swiftly and spontaneously and, together with a rich diversity of colours, adds up to a fervent overall composition.