Tàpies, Antoni.
Works of the artist.
Antoni Tàpies was born in Barcelona in 1923. His family had always been involved in the publishing business, which led Tàpies to fall in love with books and reading from a very early age. [+]
Tàpies, Antoni
Antoni Tàpies was born in Barcelona in 1923. His family had always been involved in the publishing business, which led Tàpies to fall in love with books and reading from a very early age.
At the age of 18 he discovered he had a lung disease, causing him to rethink the meaning of life and to search for a new kind of spirituality. He found increasingly interesting Eastern philosophies and religions such as Zen Buddhism, but it was The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō, that greatly transformed his thinking and influenced his artistic career. At the same time, he began to paint and draw.
In 1943 he entered the University of Barcelona to study Law but soon dropped out to devout his life to painting. In the forties, together with the poet Joan Brossa, Modest Cuixart, Joan Ponç, the philosopher Arnau Puig and J.J. Tharrats, he founded the group and the magazine Dau al Set. Influenced by Miró, Klee and Ernst, he produced works with dreamlike and magical themes, related to the surrealist and Dadaist movements.
International events such as World War II, the dropping of the atomic bomb and the Spanish Civil War marked a whole generation of artists, among them Tàpies, with a great interest in matter sensitivity, particles, atoms, and dust. Little by little he started to get involved with the informalist movement. This movement was characterized for using new techniques and forms of expression, through materials that refuted traditional methods. The unique materiality in Tàpies' work, became a key element for our understanding of his paintings. His style didn't have form, instead they were spontaneous, unmeditated, and full of feeling and spirituality. The shapes, stains, drips and cuts prevailed, as well as the materials which could often be considered waste, such as fabrics, wood and cardboard. These materials translated a deep feeling of anguish, discomfort and insecurity caused by the political and social situation of the moment.
Both human bodies and everyday objects were the protagonists of many of his works. Crosses and X's (representing the union of two opposing forces) were recurrent in his symbolism, as well as numbers, capital T's for his last name and the name of his wife, Teresa.
In 1950 Tàpies moved to Paris on a scholarship from the French government, where he experienced firsthand the debates surrounding abstraction, figuration, and social realism in regards to individualism. During this period Tàpies focused his message on the revaluation of what was considered low, repulsive, and material. It was not in vain that he often chose subjects traditionally considered unpleasant and fetishistic.
In the 60's and part of the 70's, due to his anti-Franco political commitment and his desire for freedom, his works acquired a marked character of denunciation and social criticism.
The works of his later years were essentially a reflection on death and pain -physical and spiritual-, understood as an integral part of life. Tàpies, influenced by Buddhist thought, sought to meditate on pain and considered that a greater knowledge of it would soften its effects and improve the quality of life.
The passage of time, which was a constant in the artist's work, acquired new nuances, as it was lived as a personal experience that entailed better self-knowledge and a clearer understanding of the world around him.
During his last years, Antoni Tàpies consolidated an artistic language that transmitted his conception of art and at the same time his constant philosophical preoccupation. His artistic practice remained permeable to the brutality of the present, while offering a form that remained faithful to its origins.
Tàpies' works can be found in major public and private collections such as the MOMA in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and others. He has also had several solo exhibitions and retrospectives in international museums such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1962 and 1995), the Nationalsgalerie in Berlin (1974), the Seibu Museum of Art in Tokyo (1976), the Musée d'Art Moderne in Montreal (1977) and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (1990), among others.
In 1990 the Fundació Antoni Tàpies opened its doors in Barcelona. The institution, created by the artist himself, houses many works donated by him. The objective of the foundation is to disseminate modern and contemporary art.
Throughout his life Antoni Tàpies has received numerous awards including the Gold Medal of the XV International Congress of Art Critics (1966), the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture (1981), the Peace Prize of the United Nations Association in Spain (1984), Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (1990), National Plastic Arts Award from the Generalitat (1995), Velázquez Award for Plastic Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture (2003), the Premium Imperiale presented to him by the Emperor of Japan, among many others. He also received various honors such as his appointment as Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France (1983), Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Art in London and of the American Academy of Art and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1992). He was also named Commander of the Order of the French Legion of Honor (2003), among others.
In April 2010 King Juan Carlos I granted him the noble title of Marquis of Tàpies for his \"great contribution to the plastic arts of Spain and the world\".
Tàpies continued painting until his last moments. He died on February 6, 2012, leaving an artistic legacy of significant importance inside the History of Art.
