162 - JOAN GARCÍA RIPOLLÉS, (Castellón, 1932).

JOAN GARCÍA RIPOLLÉS, (Castellón, 1932). "The rest on the beach", 1984. Oil on paper. Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Measurements: 38 x 44 cm, 68 x 75 cm (frame). Known by his second surname or as "the Blessed Ripo", Joan García Ripollés discovered his passion for painting when, being still very young and in the middle of the post-war period, he started working in an industrial painting workshop. From then on he dedicated himself to painting at night, and later took drawing classes at the Ribalta High School in Castellón. After his debut in a collective exhibition held in 1951 at the Caja de Ahorros de Castellón, in 1954 there was a turning point in his career, as a result of a trip to Paris where he established contact with the artistic circles of the city. However, he could not leave industrial painting until 1958, when he joined the Drouand David gallery in Paris, one of the most prestigious in the world. He organized his first major solo exhibition at MACBA in 1962, and in 1967 he traveled to New York, where he exhibited and sold his entire collection to The William Haber Art Collection. That same year, the New York dealer Leon Amiel, of the Larrouse Gallery, acquires all his work, something that will be repeated on his trip to Japan. From that moment on, he began a brilliant international career that has taken his work all over the world. He has organized solo exhibitions not only in Spain, Paris and New York, but also in Mexico, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, several U.S. cities, Germany and Japan. He is currently an exclusive artist of The William Haber Art in New York and the Galerie Drouand in Paris. In 2000 he was awarded the Arts Prize of the Valencian Community. Ripollés defines himself as an "immature adult" and, above all, "carefree, a little mischievous and with some naivety", words that reflect his exuberant creative spirit, his simple and extroverted character and his childlike soul. Ripollés is, today, one of the most international Spanish artists, and also one of the most complete, as he has worked brilliantly in painting, sculpture and engraving. He is represented in the IVAM, the MOMA in New York, the Museum of the University of Alicante, the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville and the MACBA.