Juan Ripollés

Juan Ripolles was born in September 1932 in Castellón, Valencia, in Spain, where he currently lives and works. After a youthful period in Paris, he returned to Spain but occasionally he took study trips to Holland, Mexico and, once again, to France. His artistic training could not avoid being compared to and influenced by one of the giants of 20th century art, Picasso.

Despite this, Ripollés found his own dreamy and ironic way to characterize the figures in his works. His way of working looks at the figures of simple people, country folk; his is a popular art, one that is steeped in the pages of characters from Don Quixote della Mancha.

Juan Ripollés was initially closer to painting, creating highly imaginative and very successful works; next he made original engravings, developing new techniques. Finally he discovered the world of sculpture and consequently that of glass.

The bronze and glass sculptures by this artist with his unmistakable signature communicate joy and fun. They are works made with the heart and not with the brain, and all of them want to amuse and not get lost in vain intellectualisms.

The artist emphasizes his figures’ enormous heads set on miniscule bodies, underscoring the four senses that reside in the head: hearing, smell, taste and sight. In short, the centre of the human being is here; then the heart completes the poem.

The polyform and multi-coloured creatures, the product of the master’s imagination, reflect Picasso’s instinctiveness and the linear grace of Matisse, preserving their originality and very personal interpretation, the result of a free expression. The Valencia artist’s success has been confirmed by numerous prizes and the exhibitions in which he has taken part. In particular, let us recall the Artes Plásticas Valencianas first prize in 2001 and his two most recent one-man shows held in Italy: Juan Ripollés Homo Ludens (2007) in public spaces in Venice and Verona.