Spanish painter and sculptor
In this
Catalan name
, the first or paternal
surname
is
Tapies
and the second or maternal family name is
Puig
; both are generally joined by the conjunction "i".
Antoni Tapies i Puig, 1st
Marquess of Tapies
(
Catalan:
[?n?t?ni
?tapi.?s]
; 13 December 1923 ? 6 February 2012) was a
Spanish
painter, sculptor and art theorist.
[1]
Canvas Burned to Matter
by Antoni Tapies, c. 1960,
Honolulu Museum of Art
Mural at the Catalan Pavilion at the
Seville Expo '92
Life
[
edit
]
The son of Josep Tapies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni Tapies Puig was born in Barcelona on 13 December 1923. His father was a
lawyer
and
Catalan nationalist
who served briefly with the
Republican government
. Due to this, Tapies grew up in an environment where he was exposed to a variety of cultural and social experiences of leaders in the Catalan public life and its republicanism. His maternal grandmother also exposed him to this world with her great involvement in civil and political activities.
Tapies was first introduced to
modern art
as he entered
secondary school
in 1934. He became inspired by famous Christmas issue of the magazine,
D’aci i d’alla
, which contained reproductions of works by artists such as
Marcel Duchamp
,
Georges Braque
,
Wassily Kandinsky
and
Pablo Picasso
.
[2]
At 17, Tapies suffered a near-fatal
heart attack
caused by
tuberculosis
. He spent two years as a convalescent in the mountains, reading widely and pursuing an interest in art that had already expressed itself when he was in his early teens.
[3]
Tapies studied at the
German School of Barcelona
. After studying law for three years, he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only to his painting. In 1945 Tapies began experimenting with materials. At this time he also became increasingly interested in
philosophy
, especially that of
Jean-Paul Sartre
as well as
Eastern thought
.
[4]
He became known as one of Spain's most renowned artists in the second half of the 20th century.
[5]
His
abstract art
and other avant-garde works were displayed in many major museums all over the world.
[6]
In 1954, Tapies married Teresa Barba Fabregas. Together, they had three children Antoni, Miguel and Clara.
[7]
He lived mainly in
Barcelona
.
Tapies died on 6 February 2012.
[6]
Work
[
edit
]
Tapies first came into contact with contemporary art as a teenager through the magazine
D’Aci i D’Alla
, published in Barcelona, and during the Spanish Civil War (1936?39), while he was still at school, he taught himself to draw and paint.
[8]
On a French government scholarship in the early 1950s, he lived in
Paris
, to which he often returned. Both in Europe and beyond, the highly influential French critic and curator
Michel Tapie
enthusiastically promoted the work of Antoni Tapies.
In 1948, Tapies 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 the poet
Joan Brossa
. The movement also had a publication of the same name,
Dau al Set
. Tapies started as a
surrealist
painter, his early works were influenced by
Paul Klee
and
Joan Miro
;
[9]
but soon become an
informal
artist, working in a style known as
pintura materica
, in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. In 1953, he began working in
mixed media
; which 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).
Canvas Burned to Matter
from c. 1960, in the collection of the
Honolulu Museum of Art
, is an example of the artist's
mixed media
assemblages
that combine the principles of
Dada
and
Surrealism
.
[10]
Tapies working on a wall painting at the
University of St. Gallen
, 1962
Tapies' international reputation was well established by the end of the 1950s. From the late 1950s to early 1960s, Tapies worked with
Enrique Tabara
,
Antonio Saura
,
Manolo Millares
and many other Spanish Informalist artists. In 1966, he was arrested at a clandestine assembly at the
University of Barcelona
; his work of the early 1970s is marked by symbols of
Catalan
identity (which was anathema to
Franco
).
[11]
In 1974 he made a series of lithographs called
Assassins
and displayed them in the
Galerie Maeght
in Paris, in honour of militant
anarchist
Salvador Puig Antich
's memory. In about 1970 (influenced by
pop art
), he began incorporating more substantial objects into his paintings, such as parts of furniture. Tapies's ideas have had worldwide influence on art, especially in the realms of painting, sculpture, etchings and lithography. Examples of his work are found in numerous major international collections. His work is associated with both
Tachisme
and
Abstract Expressionism
.
The paintings produced by Tapies, later in the 1970s and in the 1980s, reveal his application of this aesthetic of meditative emptiness, for example in spray-painted canvases with linear elements suggestive of Oriental calligraphy, in mixed-media paintings that extended the vocabulary of Art informel, and in his oblique allusions to imagery within a fundamentally abstract idiom, as in
Imprint of a Basket on Cloth
(1980).
[8]
Among the artists' work linked in style to that of Tapies is that of the American painter
Julian Schnabel
as both have been connected to the art term "Matter".
[12]
Graphic work
[
edit
]
Tapies began producing
graphic work
in 1947. He produced collector’s books and dossiers in association with poets and writers such as
Alberti
,
Bonnefoy
,
Du Bouchet
,
Brodsky
,
Brossa
,
Daive
,
Dupin
,
Foix
,
Fremon
,
Gimferrer
,
Guillen
,
Jabes
,
Mestres Quadreny
,
Mitscherlich
,
Paz
,
Saramago
,
Takiguchi
,
Ullan
,
Valente
and
Zambrano
.
[13]
Essays
[
edit
]
Tapies has written essays which have been collected in a series of publications, some translated into different languages:
La practica de l’art
(1970),
L’art contra l’estetica
, (1974),
Memoria personal
(1978),
La realitat com a art
(1982),
Per un art modern i progressista
(1985),
Valor de l’art (1993)
and
L’art i els seus llocs
(1999).
[14]
These works include Tapies reflecting on things such as art, life, and politics. He also discusses the social role of art and the artist, reflects on the influences of his work, and explains his artistic as well as political views.
[15]
Movements
[
edit
]
Throughout the span of his life, Antoni Tapies has been associated with a number of movements such as
Art Informel
and
Haute Pate
, both of which were popular in post-war Europe.
[16]
He became a part of the
avant-garde
group Dau al Set in 1948, a group that had strong ties to Surrealism. Early works of his were surrealistic, but in 1953 he began working in abstract art. Some of Tapies's most famous and original works fall within this genre. They are characterized by his use of marble dust and clay that he mixed with his paints as well as the incorporation of found objects such as string, paper, and cloth. In the late 1960s into the early 1970s Tapies began to be influenced by the movement of
pop art
. Because of this he began using larger items, such as pieces of furniture, in his works.
[17]
Exhibitions
[
edit
]
- In 1950, Tapies' first solo show was held at the Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona, and he was included in the
Carnegie International
in
Pittsburgh
.
[18]
- In 1953 he had his first shows in the
United States
, at the Marshall Field Art Gallery in
Chicago
and the
Martha Jackson Gallery
in New York.
[3]
- In 1962 he was given the opportunity to have a Guggenheim Retrospective.
[19]
- Some of his other retrospectives were presented at the
Musee National d'Art Moderne
, Paris, in 1973 and at the
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
, Buffalo, New York, in 1977.
[18]
- Later he was the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the
Jeu de Paume
in Paris in 1994.
- Kestnergesellschaft
in Hannover in 1998.
- In the year 2000 in New York, he had an exhibition at the
Pace Gallery
, which consisted of multimedia paintings as well as small bronzes and assemblages.
[20]
- The
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
in
Madrid
in 2000, and was exhibited at the
Anita Shapolsky Gallery
in New York City in 2006, 2012, and 2014.
[21]
[22]
- In 2007 at the age of 83, Tapies had an exhibition at Pace Wildenstein where he showed 17 paintings done on wood as well as canvas.
[19]
- In 2017,
Nahmad Contemporary
in New York presented the exhibition
Tapies: Paintings, 1970?2003
.
- 'Antoni Tapies. Objects'. Until February, 2018 at Fundacio Antoni Tapies museum, Barcelona
Legacy
[
edit
]
Antoni Tapies
Plaque on the facade Antoni Tapies' birthplace, 39 Canuda Street,
Barcelona
The
Fundacio Antoni Tapies
is a museum and cultural center located in
Carrer d'Arago
, in
Barcelona
that is dedicated to the works and life of Antoni Tapies. It was established in 1984 by Tapies himself. His intent was to create a forum that would promote the study as well as the knowledge of modern and contemporary art. It includes the temporary exhibitions, film seasons, lectures, symposiums, as well as different activities and showings of Tapies's work. The foundation owns one of the most extensive collections of Tapies's work, mostly donated by Tapies himself. It also contains a large library that is dedicated solely to the artists of our century and the modern literature and documentation pertaining to the genre.
[23]
Recognition
[
edit
]
- Tapies was awarded in 1958 the First Prize for painting at the Pittsburgh International, and the
UNESCO
and David E. Bright Prizes at the
Venice Biennale
.
[24]
- In 1958 Tapies, along with
Eduardo Chillida
, represented Spain in the
Venice Biennale
.
[7]
- He received the Rubens Prize of
Siegen, Germany
, in 1972.
[18]
- In the Academic Sphere, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the
Rovira i Virgili University
in 1994.
- In 2003 Tapies won Spain's most prestigious art award, the Velazquez prize.
[25]
- On 9 April 2010, he was raised into the
Spanish nobility
by
King Juan Carlos I
with the hereditary title of
Marques de Tapies
(Marquess of Tapies)
[26]
(English: Marquess of Tapies).
- Furthermore, he designed
Rovira i Virgili University’s
logo, which is characterized by the letter "a", symbol of the university's knowledge principle.
Gallery of works
[
edit
]
-
Tapies, 1952,
Els Solcs
, oil-painting
-
Tapies, 1971,
Escut font de la Budellera
, sculpture / relief
-
Tapies, 1971,
Pantalons sobre vestidor / Trousers on stretchers
, textile on the backside of a stretched canvas
-
Tapies, 1982?83,
Homage to Picasso / Homenatge a Picasso
, installation
-
Tapies, 1990,
Nuvol i Cadira / Cloud and Chair
, tube-sculpture above the facade of the
Fundacio Antoni Tapies
-
Tapies, 1991,
Conte el Diptic de la campana
- part of project 'Sala de Reflexio'
-
Tapies, 1991,
Mitjo
, sculpture
-
Tapies, 1993,
Rinzen
, installation
-
Tapies, undated,
Creu 31
See also
[
edit
]
- Rinzen
, work by Tapies conserved at
MACBA
in Barcelona
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, pp. 700-701
- ^
"1923-1943"
.
Fundacio Antoni Tapies
. Archived from
the original
on 24 September 2015
. Retrieved
1 April
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Grimes, William (6 February 2012).
"Antoni Tapies, Spanish Abstract Painter, Dies at 88"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
"1944-1948"
.
Fundacio Antoni Tapies
. Archived from
the original
on 24 September 2015
. Retrieved
1 April
2015
.
- ^
Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 700
- ^
a
b
"Obituaries; Passings; Antoni Tapies; Prominent Spanish art figure". Tribune Publishing Company LLC.
- ^
a
b
Grimes, William (8 February 2012).
"Antoni Tapies, a Painter With Textures, Dies at 88"
.
The New York Times
. p. B17.
ProQuest
920207376
.
- ^
a
b
Antoni Tapies
MoMA Collection, New York.
- ^
Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 701
- ^
Honolulu Museum of Art, wall label,
Canvas Burned to Matter
, accession 4418.1
- ^
Martin Gayford (25 March 2006),
From earth to eternity
The Daily Telegraph
.
- ^
"Matter painting"
.
tate.org.uk
.
- ^
"Antoni Tapies"
.
Fundacio Antoni Tapies
. Archived from
the original
on 17 October 2013
. Retrieved
1 April
2015
.
- ^
Antoni Tapies
Archived
17 October 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
Fundacio Tapies, Barcelona.
- ^
"Antoni Tapies - Volume II Collected Essays"
.
Indiana University Press
. Retrieved
10 April
2015
.
- ^
"Antoni Tapies." - WikiArt.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
- ^
"Antoni Tapies (1923-2012)." Antoni Tapies: Spanish Abstract Painter: Biography, Matter Paintings. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
- ^
a
b
c
Antoni Tapies
[
permanent dead link
]
Guggenheim Collection.
- ^
a
b
Katz, V. (2007). Antoni Tapies at PaceWildenstein. Art In America, 95(1), 138.
- ^
Johnson, Ken (4 February 2000).
"ART IN REVIEW; Antoni Tapies"
.
The New York Times
.
ProQuest
431373612
.
- ^
"Antoni Tapies 1923-2012, ES"
.
ArtFacts.net
.
- ^
"Art: The Expressive Edge of Paper"
,
Highbrow Magazine
, February 24, 2014
- ^
"Antoni Tapies foundation"
.
Barcelona.com
. Retrieved
10 April
2015
.
- ^
Antoni Tapies
Tate Collection.
- ^
"Barcelona Remembers Antoni Tapies and His Iconic Catalan Creations." OhBarcelona. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
- ^
Real Decreto 433/2010
? Website BOE
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External links
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