Antoni Tàpies

ANTONI TÀPIES PUIG (Barcelona, 1923 - 2012).
"Sinuós".
Oil on canvas board.
Signed in the lower margin.
Provenance: Dau al Set gallery in Barcelona.
Measurements: 66 x 95 cm; 84 x 113 cm (frame).

"Sinuós" by Antoni Tàpies is a paradigmatic work of his visual language, deeply rooted in material abstraction, personal symbolism and the exploration of the sign as a spiritual and existential expression. The composition is organized around a great pictorial gesture: a sinuous stain of white paint that meanders with expressive force over a dark, textured background, with shades of gray, black and earth. This central brushstroke made of repeated curves could evoke the symbol of infinity, which introduces a notion of the eternal, the cyclical, or even the spiritual. In dialogue with this gesture, where the random meets the significant, scattered graphic elements appear: the number 2, a Greek cross and other diluted symbolic marks, barely emerging from the white. They are fragments of a personal language, where the number, the cross or the star do not have a single meaning, but appeal to the unconscious, to the collective symbol, to the enigma. "Sinuous" fully embodies the aesthetics of Antoni Tàpies, situated within post-war European Informalism, but deeply marked by his own philosophical, political and spiritual interests. Tàpies worked with a material approach, valuing texture, the earth and elevating graphic art to a sacred dimension. The cross associated with spirituality and suffering, but also with the crossroads, gesturalism linked to chance and bodily energy? The star, as a sign of orientation or destiny; and the number, as a trace of rationality in a chaotic universe. In short, like many of Tàpies' creations, it is a space for silence and contemplation, where each element summons more questions than certainties.

Tàpies began to exhibit in the Salones de Octubre in Barcelona, as well as in the Salón de los Once held in Madrid in 1949. After his first solo exhibition at the Layetanas Galleries, he travels to Paris in 1950, with a scholarship from the French Institute. In 1953 he had a solo exhibition at Martha Jackson's New York gallery. From then on, his exhibitions, both collective and individual, were held all over the world, in outstanding galleries and museums such as the Guggenheim in New York or the Modern Art Museum in Paris. Since the seventies, anthologies have been dedicated to him in Tokyo (1976), New York (1977 and 2005), Rome (1980), Amsterdam (1980), Madrid (1980), Venice (1982), Milan (1985), Vienna (1986) and Brussels (1986). Self-taught, Tàpies has created his own style within the avant-garde art of the 20th century, in which tradition and innovation are combined in an abstract style but full of symbolism, giving great relevance to the material substrate of the work. It is worth mentioning the marked spiritual sense given by the artist to his work, where the material support transcends its state to signify a profound analysis of the human condition. Tàpies' work has been highly valued internationally, being exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world. Throughout his career he has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Praemium Imperiale of Japan, the National Culture Award, the Grand Prize for Painting in France, the Wolf Foundation of the Arts (1981), the Gold Medal of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1983), the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (1990), the Picasso Medal of Unesco (1993) and the Velázquez Award for Plastic Arts (2003). A great defender of Catalan culture, of which he is deeply imbued, Tàpies is a great admirer of the mystical writer Ramón Llull, as well as the Catalan Romanesque and Gaudí's architecture. At the same time, he appreciates Eastern art and philosophy, which, like his own work, blur the boundary between matter and spirit, between man and nature. Influenced by Buddhism, he shows in his paintings how pain, both physical and spiritual, is inherent to life. Antoni Tàpies is represented in major museums around the world, such as the foundation that bears his name in Barcelona, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheim in Berlin, Bilbao and New York, the Fukoka Art Museum in Japan, the MoMA in New York and the Tate Gallery in London.