Timothy Taylor

Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923, Barcelona, d. 2012, Barcelona) was a Spanish abstract painter and sculptor known for his deep engagement with issues of language, existentialism and materiality. His works are characterised by the use of unorthodox art materials such as dust, clay and string.

Born in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, Tàpies was exposed to the Spanish political climate and Catalonian nationalism from a young age, ideas that would profoundly influence his later artistic development. After studying law for three years in Barcelona, Tàpies devoted himself exclusively to his art practice.

Tàpies’s early works were influenced by Surrealist artists such as Joan Miró, whose work he became acquainted with through Spanish art journals. From 1953, Tàpies began working in mixed media in collage-based abstract assemblages, using humble materials such as clay, dust, rags, paper and other fragmentary materials. Influenced by his first shows in the United States, where he first saw the work of the Abstract Expressionists, Tàpies’s works from 1953 onwards incorporate elements of gestural painting along with the absurdist principles of Dada and Surrealism.

Tàpies’s frequent use of object-based assemblage became a recognisable signature of his work, particularly the recurring use of windows, doors and beds. The use of dirt, dust and soil exemplifies Tàpies’s approach to materiality, which is both metaphorical and material. While their graininess enhances the textural qualities of his works, these substances also reference Tàpies’s personal and cultural experience: the soil incorporated into the painting came directly from the ground in Catalonia, while dust was intended to express the devastation caused by the Second World War.

Tàpies’s work is included in numerous public and private collections internationally including Tate Galleries, UK; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome; Le Centre Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Tàpies represented Spain in the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993 and was awarded the Golden Lion. He exhibited extensively throughout his career, showing work at the Venice Biennale on a number of occasions, as well as Documenta and the Carnegie International. Notable solo exhibitions include retrospectives at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1962 and 1995); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1973); Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1974); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, which later travelled to Chicago, San Antonio, Iowa, and Montreal (1977); and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1990).