2023: The Centenary

Tubes of Riopelle’s paint, circa 1968, archives of Yseult Riopelle
“When I hesitate, I do not paint.
When I paint, I do not hesitate.”
– Jean Paul Riopelle
Celebrating a Centenary
of Artistic Genius
INSPIRE THE CENTENARY
It was Riopelle’s wish that the foundation bearing his name take on a participative approach in all of its endeavours: he wanted to bring people to work together.
At the onset of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist in 2023, the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation seeks to involve the general public and art enthusiasts in Canada and everywhere around the world in the creative process leading to the centenary as well as in the exchange of history, stories and knowledge around the life and oeuvre of Riopelle.
Eager to foster the next generation of artists and arts aficionados, the Foundation invites the public to emulate Riopelle, to surpass their own creative boundaries, their imagination and their sense of innovation.
The centenary of the most internationally-renowned Canadian artist must also reflect his path: from his birthplace in Montréal, where he grew up and blossomed into an artist, to France where he spent over 40 years, to the United States, and to the many villages and cities where he left his mark.
The Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation wants to hear from everyone so that with a great diversity of ideas, projects and extraordinary events, the centenary may become a collective legacy, a masterpiece in hommage to Riopelle.
More than a celebration, the centenary will be a duty of remembrance, an international commemoration. Only then, can we perpetuate Jean Paul Riopelle’s work and legacy into the next century.
Discover the centenary celebrations’ major projects in this section!
OFFICIAL PROGRAM
Official video of Riopelle’s Centenary Celebrations
RIOPELLE CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS CALENDAR

Season | Discipline | Project | Partner organisations | Dates | Website |
Cultural | Dialogues: Encounters with Riopelle’s Oeuvre from Sea to Sea | Government of Canada (Department of | September 2022 – | ||
Education | Riopelle Studio Educational Program | Government of Canada (Department of | September 2022 – Fall | ||
Cultural | 2022 Culture Days (22 cultural activities across Quebec) | Culture pour tous | September 30 – | ||
Public Art | Monumental mural in tribute to Riopelle in Downtown Montreal | MU | October 4, 2022 | ||
TV, radio and | Radio-Canada special programming for the centenary year | CBC/Radio-Canada | October 7, 2022 – Fall | ||
Visual Arts | Exhibition on the theme of migrations | Musée d’art de Joliette Irene Campolmi, curator | February 5 – May 7, 2023 (Musée d’art de Joliette) June 24 – November 5, 2023 (Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul) | ||
Music | Riopelle Symphonic | Orchestre symphonique de Montréal GSI Musique Serge Fiori & Blair Thompson, composers Montréal en Lumière Festival | November 18, 2022 (album launch) February 16-18, 2023 (concerts) Other dates to be announced | ||
Cinema | Short films in tribute to Riopelle | International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS) | March 14 to 26, 2023 | ||
Public Art | Dedication of a monument to the memory of Riopelle on Isle-aux-Grues | Montmagny Library City of Montmagny | March 12, 2023 | ||
Theatre | The Riopelle Project [working title] | Ex Machina Théâtre Duceppe Robert Lepage, director | Théâtre Duceppe: April 25 to June 3rd, 2023 Théâtre Le Diamant: Fall 2023 (dates TBA) Other dates to be announced | ||
Visual Arts | EMPREINTES exhibition | City of Gatineau (Galerie Montcalm) | May 18 to August 20, 2023 | ||
Circus Arts | Riopelle Grandeur Nature | The 7 Fingers | June 2023 (dates TBA) | ||
Visual Arts | Sur les traces de Riopelle exhibition | Montmagny Library City of Montmagny Huguette Vachon | June 16 to September 10, 2023 | ||
Visual Arts & Folk Art | Riopelle et l’art populaire : Objet trouvé, détourné, volé exhibition | Musée de Charlevoix Yseult Riopelle, guest curator | June 8, 2023 – April 2024 | ||
Visual Arts | Riopelle: Studio Scents Exhibition | Fondation Maeght (Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France) Yseult Riopelle, guest curator | June 30 to November 12, 2023 | ||
Visual Arts & poetry | L’empreinte Riopelle exhibition | Culture Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival | September – December 2023 | ||
Literature & History | Beings, Seasons and Territories A biographical chronicle | Pierre B. Landry, art historian and author | Fall 2023 | ||
Oral History & Research | Tell Me About Riopelle oral history project | Concordia University – Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) Lea Kabiljo, Ph.D. student | Fall 2023 | ||
Research | Riopelle 2023 International Symposium | National & International Universities & Museums (to be announced) | Date TBA | ||
Visual Arts | Jean Paul Riopelle : A retrospective exhibition | National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Dr. Sylvie Lacerte, curator | Octobre 2023 – avril 2024 | ||
Visual Arts | Inauguration de l’Espace Riopelle | Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) Government of Quebec City of Quebec MNBAQ Foundation | Date TBA |
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE

France Chrétien Desmarais, C.M.
Présidente du comité international des célébrations du centenaire
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Founding member and Executive President of Precinomics Health Solutions Canada inc., France Chrétien- Desmarais currently sits on numerous Boards in the health, research and social development sectors. Aiming to positively impact society, she leverages her business knowledge by supporting diverse organizations in shaping their foundations, business models, financial structures and diversifying their talents. She is a member of the Order of Canada.

Thomas d’Aquino, C.M., O.O., LL.M., LL.D.
Members of the International Committee
Co-Chair of the Riopelle Centenary Celebrations
Entrepreneur, corporate director, educator and author.
Founding Director and Chair Emeritus of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation
Ottawa, Canada
An entrepreneur, philanthropist, corporate director, author and educator. He is Chairman of Thomas d’Aquino Capital, Founding Chief Executive of the Business Council of Canada, Founder and Chairman of the North American Forum and a Founder, Director and Chairman Emeritus of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation. He is a member of the Distinguished Patrons of the National Gallery of Canada, a group that he founded in 2005 that today consists of close to 100 of Canada’s leading cultural philanthropic families. He is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ottawa.

Jim Balsillie
Members of the International Committee
Businessman & Philanthropist
Waterloo, Canada
He is the former chairman and co-CEO of Research in Motion (BlackBerry). His private investment office includes global and domestic technology investments and was part of the consortium that recently purchased the Canadian space technology leader MDA. Innovator and founder of both CIGI and the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) in Waterloo, co-founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York and the Council of Canadian Innovators based in Toronto. He received many awards including several honorary degrees and has made the Time Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People and was three times Barron’s list of “World’s Top CEOs.”. Mr. Balsillie is also a great philanthropist and an art collector.

Nathalie Bondil
Members of the International Committee
Director of the Museums and Exhibitions Division
Institut du monde arabe (IMA)
Paris, France
Nathalie Bondil is a French and Canadian art historian and curator. She served as director general and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from 2007 to 2020. Bondil joined the museum in 1999 and is the first woman to be the museum’s director. In 2019, she was awarded the Legion of Honour. She was recently appointed as Director of the Museum Division of L’Institut du monde arabe, in Paris.

Amanda Furfaro Desmarais
Members of the International Committee
Cofondatrice. | Co-Founder Subject Art
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Amanda Desmarais is Chief Curator and Founding Partner at Subject Art – an online art platform and art advisory firm. Amanda Desmarais began Subject Art in 2015 as a Founding Partner and became Chief Curator in 2016. Prior to joining Subject Art, Desmarais has worked in curatorial and advisory work in top museums and galleries in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Among these exhibitions was Shao Fan’s first solo show in Shanghai, and Zhang Huan’s monumental exhibitions in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Desmarais has also worked in art advisory and art consultancy in London, New York and Montreal. She has experience working with top tier artists as well as emerging artists. She holds a Masters Degree in Art History with a focus on Chinese Art from the University of Glasgow.

Diana Hamm
Members of the International Committee
Conseillère en art | Art Advisor
Toronto, Canada
Diana Hamm founded WK ART, an independent art advisory service, in 2014. Since then she has worked with collectors in Canada, the US, the UK and Hong Kong. With a focus on Contemporary Art, Diana helps clients build and diversify collections. Prior to founding WK ART, Diana lived in London and worked at Lisson Gallery. She trained at both Sotheby’s Auction House and the Gagosian Gallery at the beginning of her career. Diana received her MA in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London and graduated from Queen’s University with an honours Bachelor of Arts degree focusing on Renaissance and Baroque Art History. Diana sat on the Sotheby’s Canadian Advisory Board and has been an active supporter of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Power Plant. She also writes the art column for Canadian House & Home.

Vicki Heyman
Members of the International Committee
Cofondatrice | Co-Founder Uncharted LLC
Chicago, USA
Vicki Heyman served as an American cultural envoy in Ottawa from 2014 until 2017. Her leadership emphasized the importance of the Canada-US relationship through cross-border conversations and programs related to the arts, social innovation, and youth engagement. Today, she continues to work on strengthening the relationship between the two countries, serving as a board member of the Council for Canadian American Relations, an organization that promotes cross border arts and cultural exchanges and is a member of the Cultural Diplomacy Leadership Council at Meridian international in Washington DC. Heyman’s most powerful work during her time in Ottawa involved partnering with US Embassy Ottawa and the State Department’s Art in Embassies program to launch the seminal Contemporary Conversations speaking series at the National Gallery of Canada, using art as a bridge to discuss challenging issues such as social justice, the environment, and identity.

Geneviève Jacobs
Members of the International Committee
Administratrice de sociétés | Corporate Director
La Jolla, California, USA
A Board member at La Jolla Institute in California and Board Member at the San Diego UC Milk Bank. Geneviève is also a TikTok Influencer with 30K followers. She graduated with a diploma in Oceanography in Rimouski and education from the University of Ottawa. Geneviève worked on the Corila project in Venice Lagoon Barrier in Italy. She has a diverse experience, from being a medic in the Canadian Army, manager of a pharmaceutical sales team, to being a teacher and hosted a lifestyle TV show, Cosmopolis.

François Odermatt
Members of the International Committee
Collectionneur d’art | Art Collector
Montréal, Québec, Canada
François Odermatt is one of Montreal’s biggest collectors of contemporary art. He is known for his preference for painting and sculpture rather than photography or new-media works, and for choosing works that are large, unwieldy, and otherwise difficult to take home.

Ed Tang
Members of the International Committee
Cofondateur | Co-Founder Art-Bureau
New York, USA
Ed has over ten years of experience in the art world working with collectors, artists, galleries and institutions. He was previously a director at Art Agency, Partners in New York and was Vice-President and Director of Global Fine Arts at Sotheby’s New York. Ed’s previous work included collector advisory, collection development and management, valuations and special projects involving artists, estates and foundations in the US, Europe and Asia. A native of Hong Kong and the U.K., Ed received a B.A. degree in History of Art from University College London. During his time in London, he was an ambassador for Tate Young Patrons and the founding co-chair of the Whitechapel Gallery First Futures group. He was also a member of the Tate Asia-Pacific Acquisition Committee for a number of years. Ed moved to New York in 2014, shortly before becoming the Global Head of First Open at Christie’s. He oversaw the First Open New York contemporary auctions and helped its expansion to London, Hong Kong as well as the online realm. More recently, he became a founding member of the Asia Art Archive Women in Art History Fund and has been involved as a Friend at the Foundation for Contemporary Art since 2017.