Contents of article "Catalan artists - Antoni Tapies"
Antoni Tąpies
Antoni Tąpies
Born in Barcelona in 1923, painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor, Tąpies is credited with introducing contemporary abstract painting into Spain. He is considered one of the great master artists of the 20th century and is perhaps the best-known Catalan artist to emerge in the period since the Second World War.
L esperit catalą
After abandoning his law studies in order to devote himself entirely to his art, he helped to co-found the Blaus, an iconoclastic group of Catalan artists and writers who produced the review Dau al Set, the first Post-War artistic movement founded by poet Joan Brossa in Barcelona - a movement opposed to both The Formalists and the formal art centers.
Banda roja, 1971
Tąpies 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.
He soon began to develop a recognizable personal style related to matičre painting, or Art Informel, a movement that focused on the materials of art-making. The approach resulted in textural richness, but its more important aim was the exploration of the transformative qualities of matter.
Cloud and Chair
On top of the Casa Montaner i Simón,
one of the first Modernisme buildings
(1880). Now houses the Fundació
Antoni Tąpies
Tąpies freely adopted bits, detritus, earth, and stone-mediums that evoke solidity and mass-in his large-scale works.
Tąpies now lives in Barcelona where there is a museum, Fundació Tąpies, dedicated to his life and work
