The Umbracle (promenade and car park) hosts an exhibition of 20 sculptures by Ripollés

The Umbracle at the City of Arts and Sciences will be hosting an exhibition of large sculptures by the artist from Castellón, Juan Ripollés, until March 2011. The general director of the City of Arts and Sciences, Pedro García Ribot, was at the inauguration today with Ripollés, who is considered to be one of the most international of Spain’s contemporary artists.

Twenty sculptures by Ripollés have been placed throughout the Umbracle. They were created between 2006 and 2009 and consolidate the shaping of his artistic language following some works in previous years that were more abstract. Most of the pieces chosen, twelve, have been made in bronze, a material with which the artist has used all the possible range of colours in producing them, from the golden appearance that covers Man with Butterfly to the green patina that characterises Generous, not forgetting the metal’s sober range of colours visible in Supine, Bull or The Queen.

As well as these twelve figures, Ripollés has put another eight sculptures in the Umbracle. These have a wealth of colours created with a technique in which the artist from Castellón is a pioneer in the world. To do this, Ripollés uses fibreglass to make the frame of the sculpture’s body, which he then covers with very small Murano glass particles.

This material’s wide range of colourful possibilities provides Ripollés with the necessary tool to get the most out of the spectrum and immerse each piece in a lively composition overflowing with colour and fantasy. This display is also noteworthy for being a faithful example of the essence of Juan Ripollés. The works found in the Umbracle show that the sculptor identifies with nature, with mankind and with the complexity of his relationship with the surroundings, described in arbitrary, naïve sculptural shapes, but the artist reformulates this with his lively optimistic attitude in each piece.

Since 2007 the sculptures have visited different Spanish and European cities. They began their tour in the summer of that year, also in Valencia but on the Gran Vía street. Then they went to Córdoba, the majestic Plaza del Triunfo in Seville, the spectacular Retiro park in Madrid and the Paseo del Puerto promenade in Alicante. Outside Spain, they travelled to Estoril and Lisbon in Portugal in the summer of 2009.