Antoni Tàpies

ANTONI TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1923–2012).
“Book,” 1987.
Bronze. Edition: P/A.
Signed, dated, and inscribed.
Measurements: 44 x 63 cm.
Provenance: Carles Taché Gallery, Barcelona.
Exhibitions: “Antoni Tàpies. Bronzes intervinguts.” Museu de Valls, 2024. Reproduced in the catalog, p. 12.
Work dedicated to Carles Taché.

Antoni Tàpies explored three-dimensionality in his work from the very beginning. Everyday objects played a significant role in his work. Despite this preference for three-dimensional work, it took nearly four decades of artistic practice before Tàpies turned his hand to bronze sculpture. It was his gallerist, Carles Taché, who encouraged him to do so.
The sculpture resembles an open book with rough, textural surfaces (characteristic of Tàpies’s visual identity), featuring the engraved silhouette of a barefoot footprint on the left-hand page and calligraphic inscriptions on the right-hand page.

Antoni Tàpies was one of the most important Spanish artists of the second half of the 20th century and a key figure in European Informalism. Initially self-taught, he abandoned his law studies to devote himself to art and, in the 1940s, began to develop a language based on materiality, experimentation, and the incorporation of everyday signs and objects. In 1948, he helped found the Dau al Set group, which played a decisive role in the renewal of the Catalan artistic avant-garde. His international reputation was established in the 1950s through numerous exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Japan. He received major awards, including the Velázquez Prize for Plastic Arts and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, and his work is represented in major international museums and collections, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Modern in London. His graphic work occupies a central place in his body of work, as he viewed printmaking not merely as reproduction but as a genuine medium of artistic creation.