Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona / Espanha
- arte informal contemporânea -
Pintor, escultor e designer espanhol. Desde cedo interessado pelos assuntos culturais e intelectuais, Tapiès teve contacto com a arte contemporânea na sua adolescência através da revista D'ací i D'Allà, publicada em Barcelona. Em 1942 executou algumas pinturas inspiradas em Van Gogh e Picasso e em 1944 estudou Direito na Universidade de Barcelona, ao mesmo tempo que frequentava lições de desenho na Academia Valls. Em 1946 optou por abandonar os estudos para se dedicar exclusivamente à sua arte, começando por realizar trabalhos simultaneamente figurativos e abstractos. Introduziu uma grande variedade de materiais, geralmente considerados fora do domínio da pintura, com os quais realizou trabalhos que conduziram ao seu reconhecimento internacional como um dos pintores mais inovadores associados à Arte Informal e à Matter Painting. Em 1948 foi co-fundador do grupo Faul Al Set e da sua revista. Por volta de 1953 começa a dedicar-se exclusivamente à exploração dos materiais, sob a influência da Arte Informal. Até 1968, uma série de factores caracterizou o seu trabalho: sentido e ordem nas composições; variedade de técnicas para obter uma densidade material e uma textura áspera; utilização sóbria e escassa das cores. Nos finais da década de 60, Tapiès foi influenciado pela Arte Pop e começou a introduzir nas suas pinturas, pequenos objectos que o rodeavam no seu dia a dia. O seu interesse subsequente pela filosofia de Zen e pelas ideias do vazio, levaram-no a produzir instalações e objectos conceptuais. As suas pinturas de finais dos anos 70 e dos anos 80, revelam a aplicação dessa estética do vazio meditativo. A sua extrema sensibilidade em relação às qualidades dos diferentes materiais foi igualmente aplicada aos seus trabalhos como designer comercial e impressor. Em 1981 recebeu a medalha de ouro de Belas Artes, pelo Rei Juan Carlos e recebeu o título Honoris Causa do Royal College of Art, em Londres. Em 1995 teve uma grande retrospectiva no Museu Guggenheim de Nova Iorque. Em 1983 foi autor do Monument to Picasso, uma construção monumental colocada no Paseo del Borne, em Barcelona. As suas obras fundamentam-se em temas mitológicos e filosóficos. As runas e os símbolos rabiscados nos seus quadros têm um significado simultaneamente mágico e cómico.
The Berardo Collection
The Berardo Collection
Antoni Tàpies was born December 13, 1923, in Barcelona.
His adolescence was disrupted by the Spanish Civil War and a serious illness that lasted two years. Tàpies began to study law in Barcelona in 1944 but decided instead within two years to devote himself exclusively to art. He was essentially self-taught as a painter; the few art classes he attended left little impression on him. Shortly after deciding to become an artist, he began attending clandestine meetings of the Blaus, an iconoclastic group of Catalan artists and writers who produced the review Dau al Set.
Tàpies’s early work was influenced by the art of Max Ernst, Paul Klee, and Joan Miró, and by Eastern philosophy. His art was exhibited for the first time in the controversial Salo d’Octubre in Barcelona in 1948. He soon began to develop a recognizable personal style related to matière 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. Tàpies freely adopted bits of detritus, earth, and stone—mediums that evoke solidity and mass—in his large-scale works.
In 1950, his first solo show was held at the Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona, and he was included in the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. That same year, the French government awarded Tàpies a scholarship that enabled him to spend a year in Paris. His first solo show in New York was presented in 1953 at the gallery of Martha Jackson, who arranged for his work to be shown the following year in various parts of the United States. During the 1950s and 1960s, Tàpies exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and South America. In 1966, he began his collection of writings, La practica de l’art. In 1969, he and the poet Joan Brossa published their book, Frègoli; a second collaborative effort, Nocturn Matinal, appeared the following year. Tàpies received the Rubens Prize of Siegen, Germany, in 1972.
Retrospective exhibitions were presented at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, in 1973 and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, in 1977. The following year, he published his prize-winning autobiography, Memòria personal. In the early 1980s, he continued diversifying his mediums, producing his first ceramic sculptures and designing sets for Jacques Dupin’s play L’Eboulement. By 1992, three volumes of the catalogue raisonné of Tàpies’s work had been published. The following year, he and Cristina Iglesias represented Spain at the Venice Biennale, where his installation was awarded the Leone d’Oro. A retrospective exhibition was presented at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, in 1994–95. Tàpies lives in Barcelona.
Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona
His adolescence was disrupted by the Spanish Civil War and a serious illness that lasted two years. Tàpies began to study law in Barcelona in 1944 but decided instead within two years to devote himself exclusively to art. He was essentially self-taught as a painter; the few art classes he attended left little impression on him. Shortly after deciding to become an artist, he began attending clandestine meetings of the Blaus, an iconoclastic group of Catalan artists and writers who produced the review Dau al Set.
Tàpies’s early work was influenced by the art of Max Ernst, Paul Klee, and Joan Miró, and by Eastern philosophy. His art was exhibited for the first time in the controversial Salo d’Octubre in Barcelona in 1948. He soon began to develop a recognizable personal style related to matière 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. Tàpies freely adopted bits of detritus, earth, and stone—mediums that evoke solidity and mass—in his large-scale works.
In 1950, his first solo show was held at the Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona, and he was included in the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. That same year, the French government awarded Tàpies a scholarship that enabled him to spend a year in Paris. His first solo show in New York was presented in 1953 at the gallery of Martha Jackson, who arranged for his work to be shown the following year in various parts of the United States. During the 1950s and 1960s, Tàpies exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and South America. In 1966, he began his collection of writings, La practica de l’art. In 1969, he and the poet Joan Brossa published their book, Frègoli; a second collaborative effort, Nocturn Matinal, appeared the following year. Tàpies received the Rubens Prize of Siegen, Germany, in 1972.
Retrospective exhibitions were presented at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, in 1973 and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, in 1977. The following year, he published his prize-winning autobiography, Memòria personal. In the early 1980s, he continued diversifying his mediums, producing his first ceramic sculptures and designing sets for Jacques Dupin’s play L’Eboulement. By 1992, three volumes of the catalogue raisonné of Tàpies’s work had been published. The following year, he and Cristina Iglesias represented Spain at the Venice Biennale, where his installation was awarded the Leone d’Oro. A retrospective exhibition was presented at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, in 1994–95. Tàpies lives in Barcelona.
Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona