Antoni Tàpies

ANTONI TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1923–2012).
“Fulla,” 1987.
Carborundum print. Number 81/99.
Work cited in Nuria Horns, *Tàpies Obra Gráfica / Graphic Work*, Vol. IV: 1987–1994, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 2009, no. 1123.
Signed and dated by hand.
Measurements: 56 x 76 cm.
The title *Fulla*, meaning “leaf” in Catalan, establishes a direct relationship between nature and matter. The plant form is transformed through Tàpies’s graphic language, losing its purely figurative character to take on a presence akin to that of a found object or a mark preserved on a wall. The leaf thus becomes a trace of something that was once present—an image closely linked to the ideas of imprint, erosion, and memory that run through his work. The composition maintains Tàpies’ characteristic ambiguity between figure and sign. What we initially recognize as a leaf gradually becomes an autonomous, almost abstract form. This process encapsulates one of the constants of his artistic language: starting with everyday, recognizable elements to strip them of their usual function or appearance and transform them into signs imbued with new associations.
Tàpies took up drawing and painting at a very young age, and during the 1940s he came into contact with the European avant-garde and contemporary thought. In 1948, he was one of the founders of the Dau al Set group. Throughout his career, he 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, and 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, the MoMA in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.