Antoni Tàpies

ANTONI TÀPIES PUIG (Barcelona, 1923-2012).
"Empreintes de Pas, 1972.
Lithograph and sand collage on paper, copy 26/75.
Signed, numbered and dedicated to Jaume Carbonell in 1974.
Size: 92 x 63,5 cm; 112 x 84 cm (frame).
Antoni Tàpies was initiated into art during his long convalescence from a lung disease. He gradually devoted himself more and more intensively to drawing and painting, and finally gave up his law studies to devote himself entirely to art. Co-founder of "Dau al Set" in 1948, he began to exhibit at the Salones de Octubre in Barcelona, as well as at the Salón de los Once held in Madrid in 1949. After his first solo exhibition at the Galerías Layetanas, he travelled to Paris in 1950, with a grant from the Institut Français. In those years he began to take part in the Venice Biennale, exhibited again at the Layetanas and, after a show in Chicago, in 1953 he had a solo exhibition at Martha Jackson's gallery in New York. Since then he has shown his work, both in group and solo exhibitions, all over the world, in leading galleries and museums such as the Guggenheim in New York and the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris. Since the 1970s, anthologies have been devoted to him in Tokyo (1976), New York (1977 and 2005), Rome (1980), Amsterdam (1980), Madrid (1980), Venice (1982), Milan (1985), Vienna (1986) and Brussels (1986). Self-taught, Tàpies created his own style within the avant-garde art of the 20th century, combining tradition and innovation in an abstract style full of symbolism, giving great importance to the material substratum of the work. It is worth noting the marked spiritual sense given by the artist to his work, where the material support transcends its state to signify a profound analysis of the human condition. Tàpies' work has been highly valued internationally, being exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world. Throughout his career he has received numerous prizes and distinctions, including the Praemium Imperiale of Japan, the National Prize for Culture, the Grand Prix for Painting in France, the Wolf Foundation for the Arts (1981), the Gold Medal of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1983), the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts (1990), the Picasso Medal of Unesco (1993) and the Velázquez Prize for the Plastic Arts (2003). A great defender of Catalan culture, of which he is deeply imbued, Tàpies is a great admirer of the mystical writer Ramón Llull, as well as the Catalan Romanesque and Gaudí's architecture. At the same time, he appreciates Eastern art and philosophy, which, like his own work, blur the boundary between matter and spirit, between man and nature. Influenced by Buddhism, his paintings show how pain, both physical and spiritual, is inherent to life. Antoni Tàpies is represented in major museums all over the world, such as the foundation that bears his name in Barcelona, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheim in Berlin, Bilbao and New York, the Fukoka Art Museum in Japan, the MoMA in New York and the Tate Gallery in London.