Jean-Paul Riopelle was born in Montreal in 1923. He studied at École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal from 1943 to 1944 and held his first exhibition in 1945. That year was decisive for Riopelle; his career took a new twist when he participated in the creation of a new group later called the Automatists. In 1947, he moved to Paris where he lived for several years. Riopelle died on March 12, 2002.