In this exhibition “from the self” Ripollés reveals everything from his collection of urinals to his own workspace: chairs, brushes and some sketches to finish. Some mannequins with the clothes that the painter uses to create, stained with the ink of his creations, welcome the visitor to the exhibition, who can also get to know him through his photographs and some phrases that define him such as: “I live without a purchased belief, I live by my own belief that life gives me. All these elements tell the story of a 92-year-old artist who assures that he still has the ability to be surprised by new things: “I think that with this exhibition I understand myself and I see myself as what I am: just another child. As a child I am not afraid of making mistakes professionally and moving forward, when you make mistakes you are also moving forward. Failure does not exist for the creator because he learns from his mistakes,” says the artist, who assures that in a century of life he has managed to continue working with the same enthusiasm with which he accepted his first commissions.
To make the viewer feel “like a child,” Ripollés’ work is surrounded by a jungle of olive branches, palm branches and artificial moss that build the walls of his own gallery. This peculiar staging is the result of the artistic direction of the fashion designer and artist Francis Montesinos, who points out that to build this space for The naked artist he imagines his own workspace: “When I entered this room – the Noble Hall of the Ateneo – I was horrified because I saw that this was not Ripollés, that’s when I knew that I had to turn it into a paradise. The design is inspired by his house, the space of a very peculiar person who loves nature,” says Montesinos, who highlights that the challenge was to generate a “vegetable” space that was capable of remaining exposed for about four months. . To do this, he uses dry branches and palm leaves “graffitied” by the artist himself, taking the personalization of the space one step further.
Once this challenge has been overcome, Montesinos finds many points in common with the master: from his admiration for nature to colors, also for modernity and his way of adapting to the world and the spaces that surround them although “maintaining his own style.” Ripollés also finds in The naked artist, a space in which to reason and dialogue with his own body away from the “external judgement” due to his age: “At my age I want to continue painting, to continue driving and to continue making love. I want to continue living and I have the same enthusiasm that I have had all my life, working I feel free and whenever I can I will continue doing it,” says the artist.
Currently, and in response to his obsession to “continue working”, Ripollés is immersed in his largest project to date, a large-format painting that he takes on “because he wants to and because he can” and that helps him see that he is well and happy within art: “For me the body and movement are where life moves, I feel that there is still a lot to learn,” says the artist, who lets hundreds of sheets in the room cover his painted nudity, the same one with which came into the world and with which it continues to dress it.
