ANTONI TÀPIES

20th Century Artists
Bath

Since Tàpies passing in the early part of 2012, it is an honor to continue showing the outstanding works by this great master.

Tàpies’ graphic work is concerned with the materiality of a work of art. He enjoys subverting traditional processes and often uses imagery from his immediate environment such as handprints, footprints to explore concepts such as “high” and “low” art.

ANTONI TÀPIES

Antoni Tàpies © Franziska Messner-Rast, St. Gallen

Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) is internationally respected as Spain’s greatest artist. He has always lived and worked in his native Barcelona, where the foundation, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, was set up in 1984 to encourage a wider understanding of contemporary art and culture. Núria Homs of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies has said ‘the driving force behind all his work is a desire to communicate: to create talismans that transmit his ideas to the viewer’.

Tàpies’ graphic work is concerned with the materiality of a work of art. He enjoys subverting traditional processes and often uses imagery from his immediate environment such as handprints, footprints to explore concepts such as “high” and “low” art.

Graphic Work - pdf catalogue of the exhibition

Graphic Work - pdf catalogue of the exhibition

Tàpies defies the flatness of printmaking by creating indentations with carborundum, embossing and flocking. His prints often integrate drawing, collage and painting, as well as found materials such as straw, sand and earth. To achieve these innovative techniques, Tàpies collaborates with specific publishers and printmakers. He inspires each of them to achieve new technical solutions for his groundbreaking ideas. His key publishers are La Polígrafa in Barcelona, Erker-Presse in St. Gallen, and Galerie Maeght in Paris, Zurich and Barcelona.

Tapies Cat 2012 Image

Print Work - pdf catalogue of the exhibition

Núria Homs of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies has said ‘The driving force behind all his work is a desire to communicate: to create talismans that transmit his ideas to the viewer’. Reaching a wider audience through his graphic work is therefore very significant to Tàpies.

The importance of graphics as part of his work as a whole was recognized by the retrospective ‘Antoni Tàpies in Print’ organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1992 that toured to museums in the US, Central and South America.

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