Tàpies, Antoni | Colección

20th – 21st Century Spanish

A self-taught artist, Tàpies’ visual production is underpinned by a personal assimilation of Oriental cultures and an exquisite perception of reality which was coloured by the serious health problems he suffered from when he was eighteen years old. Tàpies exhibited his work for the first time in 1948, at the 1st Salón de Octubre in Barcelona. That same year he was actively involved in setting up the

Dau al Set

group and the journal of the same name.

In the 1950s he settled in Paris with a grant from the French Government. He was actively involved in the city’s cultural circles, meeting major artists like Picasso and Braque and engaging in the political, cultural and aesthetic debates of the time. In that period, he discovered art autre
and art informel are terms coined by the French art critic Michael Tapié to describe the non-
Geometric Abstraction
A term introduced in the 1920s to name a kind of abstract art based on scientific and mathematical principles. The main goal was to eliminate all subjectivity in favour of art based on the essence of geometric forms. Its main champions were Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944).
that emerged in France in the 1950s, running parallel to US
Abstract Expressionism
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
. It was predicated on the spontaneous gesture, the use of matter, automatism and the lack of preconceived ideas.
, an event that triggered a change in his whole outlook on creation. From that moment onwards, his paintings evolved from a surrealist language towards an informalist style dominated by an expressive treatment of matter. Worth mentioning is the intense exhibition activity Tàpies carried out in the following decades inside and outside Spain, helping to disseminate the visual and conceptual development of his work.

A part from his production as an artist, Tàpies also wrote for a number of publications, such as La pràctica de l’art (1970), Memòria personal (1977) and Valor de l’art (1993). He also cultivated other disciplines, such as stage design or poster-making, and techniques including engraving, lithography and silkscreening.

Tàpies enjoyed widespread acclaim in Spain and worldwide, and his career was rewarded with many prizes, like the Fundación de las Artes Award (1981), the Generalitat de Catalunya Gold Medal (1983), the Prince of Asturias Award in Fine Arts (1990), the Unesco Picasso Medal (1993) and the Velázquez Visual Arts Award (2003). In 2010 King Juan Carlos I of Spain bestowed him the title of Marquess of Tàpies.

Antoni Tàpies