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Artist: Jean-Paul Riopelle (Canadian, 1923-2002)
Canadian abstract expressionist, born in Montreal, Canada. Riopelle attended École des Beaux-Arts and École de Meuble in the 1940s. He studied under Paul Émile Bourdas, a founding member of a group called Les Automatistes that branched off the Surrealist movement. In 1947, Riopelle became a part of the School of Paris alongside Joan Mitchell. He was best known for abstract landscapes by using paint straight from the tube applied with a palette knife. He also created sculpture, lithographs and assemblages. Riopelle won the UNESCO prize in 1962 and was awarded retrospectives at the Köinischer Kunstverein, Cologne, the Musée du Québec and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg in 1958, 1967 and 2006 respectively.