Created in 1973 and cast in bronze in 1986, Hibou-famille belongs to Jean Paul Riopelle’s remarkable series of owl sculptures, produced during a period when the artist increasingly returned to recognizable forms after decades of abstraction. The owl had become an important motif in Riopelle’s work by the late 1960s, appearing across paintings, prints, and sculpture. Yet these works were never a departure from his abstract practice; rather, they demonstrate how gesture, material, and instinct remained at the heart of his creative process.

Riopelle approached sculpture with the same physical energy that characterized his painting. Working the clay directly with his hands and tools, he built up irregular surfaces, pronounced textures, and expressive contours. In Hibou-famille, the recognizable form of the owl becomes a vehicle for this tactile exploration. Its animated silhouette and richly worked surface convey a sense of movement and vitality, while the bronze preserves the immediacy of the artist’s original manipulation of the clay.

The owl was one of several creatures that populated Riopelle’s late-career bestiary, alongside geese and other birds. For Riopelle, these subjects were less symbols than starting points for the act of creation itself. As his work demonstrates, there was no strict divide between abstraction and figuration: both emerged from his instinctive engagement with material, gesture, and the natural world.

Hibou-famille is from an edition of eight, with one additional artist’s proof (EA1), placing it within a small and intimate body of sculptural works that reveal Riopelle’s playful, experimental, and deeply physical approach to art-making.

Heffel is proud to be a presenting partner of the inauguration of the new Espace Riopelle – Michael Audain Pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, opening its doors on October 22.