The magic of Antoni Tàpies - La Gazette Drouot • Besch Cannes Auction •

The magic of Antoni Tàpies - La Gazette Drouot

7/19/24
Paintings

Antoni TAPIES 1923-2012
Ocra, marro i blanc, amb quatres, 1972

Although Antoni Tàpies followed the path of abstraction in the 1950s, he never completely abandoned surrealism. Each of his paintings is made up of signs of rich symbolic significance. The first of these can be seen in this mixed technique from 1972, exhibited in 1973 at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York : the cross. The cross appeared in his work right from the start, in reference to the many cemeteries that sprang up in Spain after the Civil War, and then all over Europe after the Second World War. It has become a recurring motif, a symbol of resistance and mystery. The artist forms it from the two T's of Tàpies and Teresa, his wife's first name. Numbers, graffiti and letters cover these canvases, creating a language that is entirely his own. A self-taught artist, Tàpies studied law before serious health problems forced him to question himself and to see the importance of art and philosophy in his life. Influenced by Eastern beliefs and a strong spirituality, he works with the desire to let the material speak for itself, to let it express the suffering of the human being. For him, ‘every material has an expressive charge’. That's why he varies techniques, manipulates colours in depth and doesn't hesitate to add external, non-academic elements to his painting, even before the birth of arte povera.