Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002)

"My paintings that are considered the most abstract are, in my opinion, the most representational in the strictest sense of the term. Conversely, are those paintings whose meanings we believe we are able to read – the geese, the owls, the moose – not actually more abstract than the rest? Abstract: 'abstraction,' 'taken from,' 'to bring from'... I work the other way round. I do not take from Nature, I move toward Nature." – Jean-Paul Riopelle