Centenary of Riopelle | Riopelle in Charlevoix

As of June 16, the Musée de Charlevoix and the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jean Paul Riopelle. The museum of La Malbaie will present an exhibition on Riopelle’s links with popular art and, in Baie-Saint-Paul, we propose A place of memories: contexts of existence, an exhibition on uprooting that the Musée d’art de Joliette presented this spring.

“The concept of the exhibition arose two years ago from the D^r Jean-Luc Dupuis, who made the film Geese by Jean Paul Riopelle, explains Sylvain Gendreau, General Manager of the Charlevoix Museum. He asked us if we would be tempted to do something to mark the centenary of Riopelle’s birth. Then, Yseult, Riopelle’s eldest daughter, wanted to curate the exhibition she is dedicating to her father. »

“My idea was to link the museum’s collection to Riopelle, who was very fond of popular art,” says Yseult Riopelle. He often spoke of the Cheval postman, in France [un postier qui a construit pendant 33 ans, pierre par pierre, un palais idéal dans le village drômois de Hauterives]. And he used so many objects to make his works. A horse collar, horseshoes, snowshoes. He liked the shapes of everyday objects. »

With the accompaniment of nature sounds, Riopelle and folk art – Lost, diverted, stolen objects also evokes this love of biological diversity that marked Riopelle’s work. His attraction to animals, hunting and fishing is embodied in some twenty works belonging to members of the Riopelle family (including his youngest daughter Sylvie, who died last month) and to private collectors, coupled with dozens of arts and crafts from Quebec and elsewhere.

The exhibition begins with a section devoted to fishing. With wooden sculptures of fish and, in a display case, fishing flies by Paul Marier, Riopelle’s friend and fly-fishing ace. The titled fly Riopelle has even been reproduced in large size by the artist Daniel Bernier.

Confronted with these handicrafts, one feels a kind of closeness. The works were arranged by Yseult Riopelle, assisted by Nadyne Deschênes, museology technician, integrating them into about ten sections. In the center of the main room of the exhibition, the ice canoe painted by Riopelle in 1990 has been suspended. With an inclination that evokes the legend of the Chasse-Galerie, and surrounded by wooden geese, one of which is taking flight.

By touring the great paintings of Riopelle, we become aware once again of the formidable construction of his pictorial gesture, of this accumulation of techniques which make his style remain unique and unequaled. We can appreciate his collage techniques, the insertion of recycled elements, juxtaposed, in particular his paint tube caps to represent the eyes of the geese, in In the land of the bullfrogs. And this way he had of defining an animal form by applying the color directly with the tube.

One area evokes the snowshoes he used on his feet when he was young and as a stencil later on! Another zone is that of the roosters, with in particular the installation To thief stolen of Madeleine Arbor who, incidentally, turned 100 on March 3. Roosters that these two great friends enjoyed stealing from roadside crosses and weather vanes! In the name of the Rooster Thieves Club! The scoundrels!

On the mezzanine were hung 13 prints from the series Cap Tourmente, works from the museum’s collection. In the hall are installed sculptures. Excerpts from the movie Geese by Jean Paul Riopelle are projected in an adjacent room, where the studio that Riopelle had in Cap-Tourmente has been reconstructed in a certain way. Screenings of the film will be organized on Fridays and Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. so that it can be viewed in full. Note that this film will be presented at Domaine Forget, in Saint-Irénée, on June 18 at 2 p.m.