Antoni Tàpies tribute

Antoni Tàpies (born in Barcelona, December 13, 1923) is a Catalan painter. He is considered one of the great master artists of the 20th century. [citation needed] After studying law for 3 years,he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only with his painting. He is perhaps the best-known Catalan artist to emerge in the period since the Second World War.In 1950 he held his first solo exhibition, at Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona. In the early 50s he lived in Paris, to where he has often returned. Both in Europe and beyond, the highly influential French critic and curator Michel Tapié (no relation, despite the similar name) enthusiastically promoted the work of Antoni Tàpies.In 1948, Tàpies helped co-found the first Post-War Movement in Spain known as Dau-al-Set which was connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist Movements. The main leader and founder of Dau-al-Set was Catalan poet Joan Brossa. The movement also had a publication of the same name, Dau-al-Set. Tàpies started as a surrealist painter, his early works were influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró; but soon become an abstract expressionist, working in a style known as "Arte Povera", in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. In 1953 he began working in mixed media; this is considered his most original contribution to art. One of the first to create serious art in this way, he added clay and marble dust to his paint and used waste paper, string, and rags (Grey and Green Painting, Tate Gallery, London, 1957).His international reputation was well established by the end of the 50s. From the late 50's to early 60's, Tàpies worked with Enrique Tábara, Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares and many other Spanish Informalist artists. From about 1970 (influenced by Pop art) he began incorporating more substantial objects into his paintings, such as parts of furniture. Tàpies's ideas have had worldwide influence on art, especially in the realms paintings, sculpture, etchings and lithography. Examples of his work are found in numerous major international collections
Central to Antoni Tàpies' work is the treatment of texture and material, but he refuses the formal analysis of the aesthetic possibilities - although the beauty of his paintings cannot be denied. He concentrates on the search of magic properties and their transformation potential. His art is, among others, influenced by Raimundus Lullus, a universal scholar from the Middle Ages. Tàpies uses the combinatorial analysis of Lullus in a playful way. He not only appreciates the mystic, but also the philosopher, poet and scientist Lullus. Tàpies uses the mystic letters, symbols and even the name "Llull" appears in his works and in their titles. However, the signs' meaning can rarely be identified. They seem to have been introduced for aesthetic reasons only. Among Tàpies' characteristic calligraphic signs are the initials "A" and "T" as well as the cross, which appears in all shapes and forms. The artist considers himself a shaman and alchemist who understands the nature and secrets of materials, who can alter substances and give a meaning to life. Many of his works remind us of votive pictures of the Middle Ages which are supposed to have healing effects. The agnostic and sceptic Tàpies found his distinctive style in 1954 over the exploration of surrealism. He refuses the notion of abstract painting since he does not accept any limitation in art, which, of course, means no return to figurative painting. Tàpies explains the absence of primary colors in his work with a surfeit, a repletion of colors around him and in advertising. He says to suffer from a primary colors allergy. Moreover, he considers that the colors he found and uses express best the mystic he is looking for and that they have a deeper meaning. His works are full of elements of ordinary life, including trash. In this respect, Tàpies is close to the generation of artists who revolted themselves against abstract expressionism. His aesthetic values and means are closely related to existentialism. Among them is the principle of repetition, an everlasting questioning. Objects of ordinary life in his art, such as boxes, a bed or (as on the right) a Desk with straw are the expression of his close relation with Zen-Buddhism. For Tapiès art has a ritual character and has to change awareness, consciousness. Therefore, he constantly repeats a series of symbols, images and objects. Tàpies also deals with impossibility. Repeatedly, he indicated that his art is a kind of game, a trap observers have to realize and accept, in order to let it work. Tàpies often paints crosses or symbols on the objects in his paintings, which allows him to lift their "authenticity", their character of objects. According to the curators, they organized the retrospective in Munich around this central element of impossibility and ambiguity in the work of the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies. Catalogue (in German): Antoni Tàpies - Die Retrospektive. Haus der Kunst, Munich, in collaboration with Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Aldeasa, Madrid. With essays by Peter Bürger, Alexander G. Düttman, Antoni Tàpies, John C. Welchman and a preface by Manuel J. Borja-Villel. 324 p.
Antoni Tapies . After graduating from secondary school, he studied law and went to a mountain sanatorium in the early 1940s due to physical and mental health problems. The autodidact devoted all his energy to art following his recovery and abandoned his law studies in 1946. His work was shown at the documenta kassel and the Biennale di Venezia in the 1950s and 1960s.Tapies’s work is always committed to a cause, and frequently the expression of protest. His assemblage works speak to his political and religious dedication, to suffering in the face of unjustness and violence, illness or personal infirmity, to attachment to civil liberties and faith.