Rêve enclos II | 1957

Jean-Paul Riopelle

Rêve enclos II, 1957
Oil on canvas
72,5 x 60 cm | 28 ^1/2 x 23 ^9/16 in

Upon arriving in Paris, Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923–2002) met the gallerist Pierre Loeb and the art critic Georges Duthuit. He began exhibiting in galleries very quickly; in 1951, he was selected by Michel Tapié to take part in the exhibition “Véhémences confrontées”, conceived as a bridge between French and American abstract artists, at the Nina Dausset gallery.

By the 1950s, the painter was already recognised as one of the leading artists of his time. His work was presented in major institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1953), the Venice Biennale (1954), and the São Paulo Biennale (1955).

In 1957, Life magazine recognised Riopelle as one of Monet’s heirs for his painting, evoking sensations, perceptions, and intangible memory, through a non-figurative approach in which visual and emotional elements are in constant interplay.

In Paris, Riopelle turned to Lyrical Abstraction, which enabled him to explore new paths in his practice and experiment with innovative techniques such as impasto, palette knife application, and dripping.

This affiliation gave rise to the pivotal period of the “mosaics” — large-scale paintings executed not with brushes but with palette knives. Applied with a spatula, the paint, used pure and straight from the tube, evokes the fragments of a mosaic.

By the time Rêve enclos II was created, Riopelle had entered a new creative cycle. References to the real world — particularly to nature — became more explicit. The paintings, like their titles, -chosen by the artist, unfold as visual poems, scattering ambiguous images across the surface in layered touches.

A constant source of inspiration, nature is never depicted figuratively: it manifests instead as a rhythm, a force, an energy, conveyed through the strokes of the palette knife, which Riopelle stretches and manipulates to produce a variety of forms. The tones overlap without merging, offering the eye rich nuances reminiscent of an Impressionist painting.

The overall composition, seemingly chaotic, is in fact entirely structured by the application of colour. Shades of orange, soft or deep browns, bursts of emerald green and fuchsia appear to hold their place on the canvas with deliberate precision.

A composition at the crossroads of still life and abstract sensation, Rêve enclos II evokes rather than describes — echoing the poem by Émile Nelligan that inspired it and which Riopelle held dear. Its theme subtly reflects Riopelle’s personal life, at a time when he shared a passionate relationship with Joan Mitchell, which had begun two years earlier.

The meeting between Riopelle and Joan Mitchell in 1955 was decisive for both of their artistic practices. Together for nearly 25 years, they shared a deep sensitivity to colour and nature, influencing one another without ever merging stylistically.

Through the themes they explored, their works often echo each other, containing a similar expressive power and poetic resonance.

As an emblematic couple of abstract painting, Joan Mitchell stands for American Abstract Expressionism just as Riopelle represents Lyrical Abstraction in France: both are major figures, internationally recognised, whose legacies remain profoundly influential.

“I paint remembered landscapes that I carry with me, along with the memory of the feelings they inspired in me—feelings that are, of course, transformed…”

Joan Mitchell

Although Jean-Paul Riopelle and Jackson Pollock employed different working methods, American critics often drew comparisons between the two artists, both of whom infused their work with a similar sense of vital energy and freedom.

While Riopelle also made use of the dripping technique, he aligned himself more closely with Monet or Matisse, and with a European pictorial tradition that enabled him to develop a distinctive, deeply personal form of painting — one animated by a profound love of nature and poetry.

In this respect, Riopelle was never purely abstract. His work is powerful, always grounded in reality, offering glimpses of the world through layered touches and evoking universal perceptions.

“Riopelle succeeds where memory falls short. The intangible takes form, desire finds a pictorial life. Lost objects, cast-off impressions, forgotten emotions are gathered into a cocktail shaker, then poured over ice into a Venetian glass of exquisite clarity—in a splendid explosion.”

P. Boudreau, foreword, exhibition catalogue, Riopelle, London, 1959