[4]: 157  He and other critics noted sharp contrasts between rough and smooth, abstract and realistic, tender and violent, delicate and crude, and many other paired oppositions in his artwork, and his recurrent themes of sex, birth, growth, decay, death, and resurrection.

[4]: 158–171 [5] Ipoustéguy was unafraid to depict emotional intensity in a sometimes controversial way; several of his major commissioned works were rejected, but later installed as planned, or in other locations.

In 1920, Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy was born Jean Robert in Dun-sur-Meuse, between Verdun and Sedan, in the recent aftermath of the ruinous trench warfare of World War I.

[5]: 166 [6]: 9  Jean's father was a joiner, earning a living by producing fine woodwork, who also enjoyed painting, violin playing, and amateur theatrical productions.

[6]: 12  Under the Vichy regime, he was assigned as an ironworker and cement worker on the Atlantic Wall and later the submarine base at Bordeaux, incidentally acquiring practical skills he would later use in his artworks.

[6]: 13  During this difficult period, he produced drawings when he could,[6]: 13  such as Soldat endormi (Soldier asleep, 1941) and Sanguine nu de femme (Fiery female nude, 1941).

[6]: 15 In 1947-48, he joined a "collective" of teachers and young artists creating frescos and stained glass windows for the church of Saint-Jacques, Petit-Montrouge, Paris.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the artist began to append his mother's Basque[2] maiden name, "Ipoustéguy", after his given name, since "Robert" is a very common surname in France.

[8] Ipoustéguy gradually moved towards figurative work, and some of his early sculptures were abstracted heads in bronze, such as Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc, 1957), Roger Binne (1959), Homme qui rit (Man who laughs, 1960), and Tete de mort (Skull, 1961).

[2][5]: 167  Upon his return, he made La Terre (Earth) and Homme (Man), two large bronze nudes that would characterize his renewed interest in the human figure.

[5]: fig.33 The May 1968 events in France affected Ipoustéguy, who produced a series of political posters during Le temps des cerises ("The time of the cherries").

[4]: 171 In 1970 he produced La brouette (Wheelbarrow), Lune de miel (Honeymoon), and Le calice (Chalice), small, frankly erotic sculptures.

[5]: fig.26, 27, 32 In 1971, he received his first official commission, for Homme forçant l'unitė (Man forcing unity), installed at the Franco-German nuclear physics research center at Grenoble.

[5]: fig.34 In 1976, he completed Maison (House), a two-piece polished bronze showing a frank heterosexual coupling as the framework and foundation of the domestic environment,[4]: 165–168 [5]: fig.38  and the boldly anatomical abstract Triptyche.

[5]: 168  The sculpture shows a standing nude figure, apparently shedding an anguished skin or shell, and supported by robust tubular elements.

[5]: 168  The same year, his largest sculpture, L'homme construit sa ville (Man builds his city), was installed at the Congress Centre in Berlin.

[5]: 168 In 1982 Louise Labé, at Place Louis Pradel in Lyon In 1985 L'homme aux semelles devant (à Rimbaud) (Man with soles in front, to Rimbaud), in Paris In 1989 A la santé de la Révolution (To the health of the Revolution) in Bagnolet (France) In 1991, Nicolas Appert in Châlons en Champagne (France) In 1998, he produced Âge des interrogations and Âge des conclusions, reflections on approaching mortality.

[5]: fig.41, 42 In 1999, Porte du Ciel (Door of the Sky), Braunschweig (Germany) In 2001 Ipoustéguy installed his sculpture La mort de l'évêque Neumann (cast in 1976), which had been rejected by the Americans almost a quarter-century earlier.

He could skillfully render the textures of fragile materials such as cloth or paper in his favored sculptural media, durable stone and bronze.

[4]: 165  His work was influenced by Surrealism, freely combining realistic elements with the fantastical, and focusing on social issues, sex, birth, growth, decay, death, and resurrection as major themes.

[3] The frankness and uncensored directness of some of his artistic output led to objections from a few religious and political groups; nevertheless, his work is displayed at French embassies and major museums throughout the world.

In his prime, Ipoustéguy was a sturdy, squat, stocky ("trapu")[12] man, with strong arms and hands, and was often photographed working bare-chested.

[1] In November 1974, he learned via telephone that his 10-year-old daughter Céline had died suddenly, a brutal shock which caused him to abandon work for a time.