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Dimensions: 38 by 51 in. 96.5 by 129.5 cm.
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Provenance: Alex Hillman Family Foundation, New York (acquired directly from the artist)
Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, May 14, 1970, lot 16
Acquired by the previous owner from the above sale
By descent to the present owner
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Notes: Echo d'Horizon, conveys all the intensity of Jean-Paul Riopelle's spectacular abstract vision. Displaying his landmark style characterized by a technique of angular strokes of paint applied with a small spatula, Riopelle has built the dynamic and vibrant surface through a carefully balanced combination of intuitive impulse and refined control. His extensive palette of vivid primary tones scintillates with an unrivalled energy of color. The painting's bold astral strokes fracture and echo across the picture plane, resembling a reverie of energetic chaos. Disparate forms seem to emerge and then disappear, engulfing the viewer in its incandescent wake.
"To look at a painting by Riopelle is to enter it: to be whirled into a field of forces that is composed not only of things, but of the motion of things - of their dislocation and their harmony," (Paul Auster, Exh. Cat., New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Jean-Paul Riopelle, 1975).
Dominated by the opposing play of contrasting hues of brilliant red and cobalt blue, the painting explodes in a lustrous burst of light, color and force that fractures and echoes across the picture plane, sparkling with an energy and life of cosmic intensity. In Echo d'Horizon, Riopelle achieves a delicate balance between the wild frenzy of abstraction and the underlying harmony of an abstract landscape, creating a work of both extraordinary depth and delicate intricacy.
