The sculptor and painter Antoni Tàpies was born (Barcelona 1923) into a well-to-do Catalan publishing dynasty and it was here and how his love of reading started. Lung disease left him unable to continue his law studies but did allow him to exhibit circa 1940, in what turned out to be the start of a long artistic career, his earliest pieces which featured mainly graphic art. Due to the destruction wrought by the Second World War and the impact of the atomic bomb, he expressed, through innovative new techniques, his interest in dust, earth, matter and atoms, all elements that became intrinsic to his later textured paintings.
Heavily influenced by Klee y Miró, his iconographic compositions increased to now include greater expressivity and communication using dense textures as well as some geometric elements. Tàpies' international reputation was well-established by the end of the 1950s whilst in the 1970s, there began to appear in his work the first symbols representative of his Catalan identity, hand and footprints, handwriting and everyday objects. Tàpies was an artist of well-known political compromise who reflected his views through his art. His paintings served to denounce General Franco's dictatorship up until the restoration of the right wing state in the 80's, at which point he revamped his proposals and techniques using spray paint, varnish or foam to create bronze sculptures. In this period, he was very much under the influence of Eastern art and philosophy and accentuated his emphasis on the identities of Nature and of the human being but also on "matter" or the universe that was then being discovered by a new generation of scientists.
"Grattage Rojo" (Red grattage). Image available at www.tiempodehoy.com
In addition to 1963's "White with red sign", other of Tàpies' paintings that have reached record prices at auction are: "Azul LXIX", an oil and sand depiction in shades of blueof what appears to be a galaxy amongst ruins that sold for 1.1 million euros at Christie's in Spring 2007, and made the cover of newspapers worldwide. Likewise, the collage “Tierra, Tela y Papel” with its geometric lines, crosses, arrows and stones representing the wear and wastage of a half-finished process also sold for a six-figure sum in 2011.
"Azul LXIX" (Blue LXIX). Image available at www.tiempodehoy.com
Antoni Tàpies' oeuvre has been exhibited or is on display in the world's greatest museums and art galleries, for instance: the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona and the Queen Sofía Museum in Madrid; and also in Berlín, Los Angeles, Zurich and London, to name but a few. In Barcelona, Tàpies created his eponymous Foundation with a view to promoting awareness of and the study of contemporary art and basing itself on an analysis of the human conscience in the modern world. The artist himself donated 300 of his own works to the Foundation.
"Cruz y Tierra" (Cross and Soil). Image available at www.repro-arte.com
His prolific career distinguishes Tàpies as the great innovator of both Spanish contemporary art and avant-garde art of the 20th century. He died in 2012 at the age of 88. Always true to his roots and using a diverse pictorial language, he was inclined towards traditional themes, almost obsessively so, but always re-evaluating his materials to produce accessible works in the social and political spheres. He translated perfectly his philosophical concerns and consolidated his thoughts with an artistic language that kept evolving over time.
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Image (right): Bed, available at www.tallerdecartasdeamor.wordpress.com
Image: Antoni Tàpies, available at www.trianarts.com
(Translated from the Spanish by Shauna Devlin)
- Antoni Tàpies: Biography, Works and Exhibitions - - Alejandra de Argos -
