Benidorm hosts the conference 'A timeless genius of the arts' by the artist Juan García Ripollés

Yesterday afternoon, the Assembly Hall of the Benidorm City Council hosted the conference 'A timeless genius of the arts' by the Valencian artist Juan García Ripollés, organized by the Benidorm Opinion Club. An act that had as a previous activity a colloquium talk with all the attendees and which was attended by the mayor of the city, Toni Pérez, the regional deputy Manuel Pérez Fenoll and members of the corporation, in addition to numerous attendees who almost filled the venue.

Ripollés, one of the most international Valencian artists of all time, reviewed his life and career since he started painting when he was just over twelve years old. Born in Alzira in 1932, he began working as an apprentice at the age of 12 in an industrial painting company. During that time, until he was 20 years old, he attended the Ribalta school of arts and crafts, in Castellón.

It was in 1954 when he moved to Paris, where he stayed until 1963. In 1958 he was part of the group of painters at the Drouand gallery in Paris and, as he said yesterday, “I left because of the illusion of painting. I arrived with my naive soul and found myself in a completely unknown world. But fearlessness is the fundamental key to human creativity” he maintained.

He returns to Spain in 1963 and in 1972 he establishes his workshop in Borriol. About those moments he said that 2for developing the profession I abandoned the physical coexistence of the big cities. I wanted to be as pure as possible.” The artist reported that in 1989 he moved to Más de Flors (San Juan de Moro) and recalled that in 2009 he gave four sculptures to the City Council to exhibit in the Davis Cup venue. Some works with dimensions of 270 centimetres high by 245 wide and 112 deep are Made of fibre and covered with crushed Murano glass.

Juan García Ripollés has exhibited in New York, Mexico, Ghent, Stockholm, Bordeaux, Santo Domingo, Miami, Lausanne, and Amsterdam, among other world capitals and in many Spanish cities.

About him, the writer Manuel Vicent wrote the novel 'Ángeles o neofitos' in 1980, which dealt with the metamorphosis between Blessed Ripo and the painter Ripollés in his life outside of painting. “I do not agree with the philosophy of the novel because it made a romanticism of my life that I have not lived.

But I put up with it and admitted it, rather than censor him," added the artist.