Antoni Tàpies is considered one of the fundamental exponents of Spanish art in the second half of the 20th century, and one of those with the highest international profiles. He was a forerunner of Art Informel and Arte Povera, but above all he created a visual language that was unmistakably all his own. Lung disease in his youth led Tàpies to teach himself to draw and paint. He subsequently studied law (1941-1946), but dropped out to become a full-time painter. In 1947 he struck up a friendship with poet Joan Brossa and in 1948 they founded the magazine Dau al Set along with artists Joan Ponç, Modest Cuixart and Joan-Josep Tharrats and writers Arnau Puig and Juan Eduardo Cirlot. The magazine, which had a strong surrealist element, was an attempt to renew the Catalan art scene. However it folded in 1951. At that time, Tàpies' developed a form of expression based on magical, surrealist and primitivist elements, influenced by the paintings of Joan Miró, Paul Klee and Max Ernst. In 1950 he moved to Paris under a grant from the French government. There he came into contact with Art Autre, and this led him right into treating material as a vehicle for expression but also for symbolism, as a link between human beings and the universe. His use of earth, dust, varnish, collage and graphism produced via cuts, scratches and scrapes brings together processes of creation and destruction in his works, with paintings being seen as walls in a literal, nominal or metaphorical sense. In the 1950s his work earned international renown when he took part in the Venice Biennale of 1952, obtained the Grand Prize for Painting at the São Paulo Biennial in 1953 and staged a solo exhibition that same year at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. In the 1960s and 1970s Tàpies became increasingly committed to social and political causes, and this came through in his works, into which he incorporated objectual components as an expression of the setting of his everyday life. In the decades that followed he continued to develop his own visual stye filled with recurring signs and motifs, with increasing emphasis on Oriental thinking and reflection on pain seen as an intrinsic part of life.

Tàpies's work has been shown at events including the Venice Biennale (1952, 1958 & 1981) the São Paulo Biennial (1953) and Documenta 3 (Kassel, Germany, 1964). The first retrospective of his work was staged at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 1962), where he exhibited again in 1995, and at top international venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, 1965), the Nationalgalerie (Berlin, 1974), the Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona, 1976), the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1990, 2000 & 2004) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1992). Following his death, exhibitions were held at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2013-2014), the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona 2013-2014) and the Antoni Tàpies Foundation (Barcelona, 2013-2014). This foundation was created by the artist himself in 1984. The accolades received during his career included the Gold Medal of the Regional Government of Catalonia (1983), the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (1990) and the Velázquez Award for Fine Arts (2003). King Juan Carlos I granted him the title of Marquis of Tàpies in 2010.

Roberto Díaz