Antoni Tàpies

Antoni Tàpies (13 December 1923 - 6 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain), a leading Spanish artist, began painting during the long convalescence of an illness he had suffered in his youth, also marked by the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Although he began studying law in 1944, two years later he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to artistic production. Influenced by Miró, Klee, and later Dubuffet, his work quickly stood out; in 1948 he participated in the creation of the magazine Dau al Set with the homonymous group of artists and poets of the Catalan avant-garde. He held his first solo exhibition in 1950 (Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona) and received a French public scholarship to spend a year in Paris. His work was characterised by the progressive recurrence of geometric elements and colour studies, in which the use of strong textures already showed a strong interest in the subject matter. He gained international recognition in the mid-1950s thanks to its unique style, close to matiérisme or Informal Art, a trend in abstract art with a focus on materials and artistic activity, exploring expressive possibilities of colour, light, or less conventional materials - particularly by using waste, earth, or stone in large-scale pieces. In the 1960s, he explored new techniques, textures and supports, using for example varnish or everyday objects, also incorporating iconographic and anthropomorphic elements, text, and references to the Catalan scene. His pictorial language never ceases to evolve, giving rise to a rich, prolific work, exhibited in reference institutions, in most of which he is represented, such as MoMA - Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Arts and Serpentine Galleries, London; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; MACBA - Museo d'Art Contemporani of Barcelona.

He has published several essays on art, politics, and his personal journey. He created the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in 1984, which opened in 1990, the year in which he was distinguished with the prestigious Praemium Imperiale of painting by the Japan Art Association. In 1993, with Cristina Iglesias, he received the Golden Lion for Spain's representation at the Venice Biennale.

CB, outubro 2020