Antoni Tàpies

ANTONI TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1923–2012).
“Roba interior,” 1972.
Hand-colored carborundum on Guarro Special paper, edition 19/75.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Published and printed by La Polígrafa, Barcelona.
Bibliography: Mariuccia Galfetti, Antoni Tàpies. Graphic Works 1947–1972, Ed. Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 1973, no. 294, p. 180.
Measurements: 60 x 78 cm.

Dated 1972 and part of a limited edition of 75 copies, *Roba interior* encapsulates one of the most characteristic aspects of Tàpies’s mature work: the transformation of the most everyday and humble objects into images of intense material and symbolic presence. It was precisely during the 1960s and 1970s that the artist deepened his interest in garments, household items, and used objects, valuing in them the traces of time and human action.

The carborundum technique is particularly well-suited to this artistic language, as it produces dense, textured surfaces that convey qualities on paper similar to those of his material-based painting. Against the black background, the garment is defined by a light, rough material, traversed by a large reddish cross and graphic symbols that transform a seemingly banal motif into an image of strong visual tension. The work also belongs to a period of particular intensity in Tàpies’s printmaking and to his long-standing collaboration with La Polígrafa, which was instrumental in the dissemination of his prints and artist’s books.

Antoni Tàpies was one of the key figures of European Informalism and a co-founder of Dau al Set in 1948. His international recognition was established early on: in 1958, he received the first prize from the Carnegie Institute and, at the Venice Biennale, the UNESCO Prize and the David Bright Foundation Award; in 1962, he held retrospectives at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover, and the Kunsthaus Zürich. His work is widely represented in institutions such as MoMA in New York, and is also preserved and studied primarily at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona.