Antoni Tàpies. Collection, 1955–65

To coincide with the exhibition of the fonds of Les Abattoirs in Toulouse, Documents of Action. Works from the Denny and Cordier Collections (1947–65), the Fundació Antoni Tàpies offers a selection of works from its collection centred on the decade when Tàpies became internationally renowned.

The Antoni Tàpies public image acquired an iconic category that connected him to Abstract Expressionism and the desire to turn subjectivity into prime material. While his choice of materials took centre-stage, his capacity for embracing multiple meanings in order to leave behind the narrative and literary contents of the previous era turned Tàpies into a prototype of the modern artist.

n 1954–55, Antoni Tàpies’ work experienced a significant change as a result of previous experiences, influences and affinities. This was the beginning of his maturity as an artist. His interest in the expressivity of certain materials, which he had already shown during the 1940s, produced works reminiscent of walls, characterised by the density of the textures and a limited palette dominated by grey, brown and ochre. With these works Tàpies achieved national and international recognition, especially in the late fifties and early sixties.

An important part in the promotion of Tàpies’ work was played by the New York dealer Martha Jackson, in whose gallery Tàpies began showing from the end of 1953, and the tandem formed by the French art critic Michel Tapié, the theoretical exponent of Informalism, and Rodolphe Stadler, who opened his gallery in Paris in the autumn of 1955. The exhibition Collection, 1955–65 focuses on that period and includes works and documents from the Fundació’s Collection and Archive, as well as some significant loans from private collections. Also included is a screening of the documentary Tàpies, by Clovis Prévost, and produced by Maeght, Paris, in 1969.