In the early 1940s, Jean Paul Riopelle studied with Paul-Émile Borduas during an exciting period in the Montreal art scene. For Riopelle and his mentor Borduas, Surrealism – particularly its experiments in automatism - was a catalyst for freedom. Serge Guilbaut notes, “Automatism in Quebec broke the chains and defied the laws that the petit-bourgeois power structure had established to smother it. And of all those who were swept away by this liberatory current, few demonstrated the same intelligence as Riopelle in confronting the Parisian art scene.” In 1946 and 1947 Riopelle produced a group of abstract ink and watercolour works, which Roald Nasgaard described as “scintillatingly fresh and original. They are constructed in the figure-ground way of Borduas, starting with a dappled watercolour-washed ground of bright colours that is then overlaid with a network of fine ink lines.” Sans titre is intuitive and full of movement, as though it burst from Riopelle’s unconscious, yet completely sure in its adept handling of form and space.

This work has been examined by Yseult Riopelle and will be included in her online addenda to Riopelle’s catalogue raisonné.

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.