Antoni Tàpies: Works, Writings and Interviews: v. 4 (Essentials Polígrafa) - Tapa dura

Footmarks and handprints, sand, wood, earth, rope, words and letters: Tàpies, repertoire is infinite. Miró encouraged him to use forms and materials of every kind, all the more so in an environment devoid of meaning-Spain in the post-war years-in which official reality bore no relation to the situation as it really was. Imperceptibly, true reality asserted its pre-eminence and the expressiveness of increasingly organic materials, endowing his painting with greater materiality than signification.

Antoni Tapies was born in 1923 to a Barcelona family of publishers and booksellers. He began drawing and painting as a young man, during a convalescence, and in the end gave up studying law to concentrate on art. By the 1940s, in his 20s, Tapies was already exhibiting widely. As an early Matter painter, he added dirt and other solids to his canvases, transmuting them into art and reminding viewers of the earth to which they would return. Later, in the era of Arte Povera, he worked in foam rubber and spray, varnishes and, for creating objects or sculptures, refractory clay and bronze. Coming from a bookish family, he also produced a number of artist's books and editions, working with collaborators such as Joseph Brodsky and Jose Saramago. This collection of the artist's writings is available here for the first time in English. An interview with Manuel Borja-Villel, Director of the MACBA in Spain, completes the volume.