Antoni Tàpies

ANTONI TÀPIES PUIG (Barcelona, 1923–2012).
“Lambrec,” 1975.
11 offset lithographs on paper. Copy 203.
Includes the book “Llambrec material,” with poems by Shuzo Takiguchi.
Publisher: Polígrafa, Barcelona.
Signed in pencil on the print run certificate.
Measurements: 47.5 x 35.5 x 6 cm (box).
Graphic art played an essential role in Antoni Tàpies’s career. Far from viewing it as a medium secondary to painting, the artist found in printmaking techniques a space for experimentation where he could create with absolute freedom. It is within this context that *Llambrec* is situated, a series conceived as a total work, bringing together a series of original offset lithographs and the physical book *Llambrec*, featuring poems by the Japanese writer and critic Shuzo Takiguchi, a key figure in the Japanese avant-garde and one of the great driving forces behind the dialogue between Eastern and Western artistic cultures.In *Llambrec*, Tàpies transcends the traditional notion of the illustrated book. The images neither interpret nor describe the poems, but rather establish a relationship of poetic equivalence with them. Signs, graphic elements, marks, and stains construct an autonomous visual language that engages with the text through suggestion and evocation. The title itself, *Llambrec*—a Catalan term referring to a flash, a reflection, or a fleeting appearance of light—captures the essence of the project.
Antoni Tàpies has held exhibitions around the world, in prominent galleries and museums such as the Guggenheim in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. His awards include the Prince of Asturias Award, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association, the National Culture Award, the Grand Prize for Painting in France, among others, and retrospective exhibitions have been dedicated to him in Tokyo, New York, Rome, Amsterdam, Madrid, Venice, Milan, Vienna, and Brussels. His works are represented in major national and international museums, such as the foundation that bears his name in Barcelona, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheims in Berlin, Bilbao, and New York, the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan, MoMA in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.