Antoni Tàpies
, Barcelona, Spain — , Barcelona, Spain
The surname of the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies is derived from the Catalan word 'tàpia', meaning wall, and he could not have been born with a name that suited him any better. Growing up during the Spanish Civil War, Tàpies has always been surrounded by walls on which people inscribed their fears, doubts, desires, and frustrations. Shocked by these Catalan walls of his youth, Tàpies decided to start making paintings that acted as walls, doors, or windows, bearing witness to the horrors of the past. Like the Catalan walls, Tàpies’ own walls are scratched upon and violated. Walls also fascinated him because they deny access and block vision, they are far from a peaceful window to the world. A wall acts like a two-sided mirror between two worlds. Whatever lies behind the wall can never be touched, but the wall holds the promise of the existence of another side.
About Antoni Tàpies
Everything takes place in a field infinitely larger than that which delimits the size of the painting, or grand er than that which appears physically in the painting. The painting is simply a “support” that invites the viewer to participate in the much broader game of a thousand and one visions and feelings. It is the talis man that builds or tears down walls in the deepest cor ners of our spirit, that opens and sometimes closes doors and windows in the construction of our impotence, our slavery, or our freedom.
