Joan García Ripollés

JOAN GARCÍA RIPOLLÉS (Castellón, 1932).
Untitled.
Etching, copy 79/200.
Signed and justified by hand.
Size: 32 x 42 cm (print); 38,5 x 49,5 cm (paper).
Known by his second surname or as "the Blessed Ripo", Joan García Ripollés discovered his passion for painting when, while still very young and in the middle of the post-war period, he started working in an industrial painting workshop. From then on he devoted himself to painting at night, and later took drawing classes at the Ribalta secondary school in Castellón. After his debut in a collective exhibition held in 1951 at the Caja de Ahorros de Castellón, in 1954 he travelled to Paris. In 1962 he held his first important individual exhibition at the MACBA in Barcelona. In 1967 he travelled to New York, where he exhibited and sold his entire collection to The William Haber Art Collection. He has held solo exhibitions not only in Spain, Paris and New York, but also in Mexico, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, various American cities, Germany and Japan. In 2000 he was awarded the Premio de las Artes de la Comunidad Valenciana. He is represented at the IVAM, the MOMA in New York, the Museum of the University of Alicante, the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona.