Riopelle’s new Quebec pavilion brings 504 works under one roof
Quebec’s national fine arts museum has inaugurated a pavilion devoted to Jean Paul Riopelle. Its collection holds 504 works, with 130 initially on display and annual rotations planned. A route through the artist’s career ends at his forty-metre Rosa Luxemburg work; public visits begin on 22 October after the formal opening.
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A collection of 504 works will rotate through the galleries
The national fine arts museum of Quebec, in Canada, formally inaugurated Espace Riopelle on Wednesday. The new pavilion is devoted to Jean Paul Riopelle and houses a collection of 504 works. Approximately 450 already belonged to the museum; further works came from patrons Michael Audain and Pierre Lassonde through the Riopelle Foundation. The building bears Audain’s name.[1], [2]
An initial 130 works are on display. Curator André Gilbert organised Riopelle: l’expression du geste as a retrospective, with separate attention to the mosaic and iceberg series. He plans annual rotations during the first five years, allowing more of the holdings to move out of storage. The museum’s conservators will then take over the rotations. Public visits begin on Thursday.[1], [2]
The route rises to a forty-metre work
Paintings, prints, sculptures and mixed-media works feature in the opening display. Loans supplement the permanent collection: Riopelle’s estate has lent Fontaine, a four-metre painted plaster sculpture, on a long-term basis. The National Gallery of Canada has also lent an early oil painting. The ascending route ends on the top floor with L’hommage à Rosa Luxemburg.[2]
Riopelle made that forty-metre work in 1992 after learning of Joan Mitchell’s death. A large room was designed around it. Visitors can step onto an outdoor terrace and continue into the neighbouring Gérard-Morisset pavilion, which houses Quebec modern art.[2]
Glass and spruce link the pavilion to the park
The three-storey pavilion took two and a half years to build. Architecture firm Les Architectes FABG used glass and black spruce for the 5,600-square-metre building. Architect Éric Gauthier drew inspiration for its spruce ceilings from the timber framing of Riopelle’s studio. Dots on the glazing are intended to reduce bird collisions, including those involving snow geese.[1], [2]
The terrace overlooks the St Lawrence River and the Plains of Abraham. Gardens below evoke Laurentian vegetation and contain five Riopelle sculptures, including the bronze La tour,, made around the early 1970s. The pavilion connects the museum’s three other buildings within the park.[1]
