Juan Ripollés

Juan García Ripollés, from Castellón born in Alzira (Valencia, Spain) in
1932, the death of his mother in childbirth took him to the capital of
La Plana.

The beginning of his life was not easy: he collected horse dung, was a
scrap dealer and a house painter, until he left for Paris in 1954. He
wanted to be a painter. And that’s where he did it.

Four years after his arrival, he hung his paintings in the prestigious
Drouand David gallery, the same one that had exhibited Picasso and
Chagall.

Since his return to Spain in the sixties, his workshop is nature.

Today, at 80 years of age, he is still like this: he paints in the
garden of his house in the small district of Mas de Flors, in Castellón.

During the last five decades, his canvases and prints have been shown in
the best galleries and museums in Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo or Beijing.

His large-format sculptures have been installed in parks and in the main
streets and squares of Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Lisbon, Venice,
Verona, Hertogenbosch or Beijing.

I like bread and my heaven is life. I speak clearly.
You are you. My pain, my thirst, my look, my love, my word. You are you.
For me, art is the reflection of reality, an emotion of what is alive.
I change whole words for half words. Who will exchange laughter for
tears?
Today I wanted to say something, something like I don’t know what. But
nothing, I couldn’t say anything.