TÀPIES: The 60s & 70s

Following the passing of Catalonian genius Antoni Tàpies in February 2012, several art galleries have joined hands to pay tribute to this man and his vast artistic career.

Antoni Tàpies. The 60s & 70s, exposed at the Elvira Gonzalez Gallery thru March 31, harbors a collection of artworks made in those decades “by an artist who always sees himself as a realist, a realist who wants to showcase reality, yet not from the traditionally figurative perspective,” just as maven Manuel Borja Villel put it in an interview with the gallery on the eve of the exposition.

The exhibit gathers pieces cut out for large-scale formats on a number of means, using mixed technique. Some of the highlights are Què fem?, painted by Tàpies in 1974, and in which he used materials and symbols that depict the work he conducted in the 1950s.

During the 1960s, Tàpies started trying his hand at textures, in what has been known as “matteric art” and in which the use of iconographic signs like writings, footprints and fingerprints are utilized. During this span of time, he began to insert objects from the outer reality into his paintings. Transformed by the artist’s hand, these objects change their nature. This new treatment of materials came to pass along with the expansion of Arte Povera across Europe, and the more conceptual trend in the U.S.

For more information on this exhibit and on the artist, please visit the Antoni Tàpies Foundation’s website at www.fundaciotapies.org.