Antoni Tàpies : ‘Color Lithographs’ (Artworks)

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“My wish is that we might progressively lose our confidence in what we think we
believe and the things we consider stable and secure, in order to remind ourselves
of the infinite number of things still waiting to be discovered…” – [Antoni Tapies]

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‘8 sobre llibre’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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‘Untitled’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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‘Untitled’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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‘Envoltorio’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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‘Lettre X’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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‘Etiquette’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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‘Divisé’
Color lithograph
Antoni Tàpies
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Tàpies shared a general sensibility which affected artists on both sides of the Atlantic after the Second World War and the dropping of the atomic bomb, and soon expressed an interest in matter – earth, dust, atoms and particles – which took the shape of the use of materials foreign to academic artistic expression and experiments with new techniques. He believes that the notion of matter must also be understood from the point of view of Medieval mysticism as magic, mimesis and alchemy. That is how we must see his wish for his works to have the power to transform our inner selves.

The works of the last years are, most of all, a reflection on pain – both physical and spiritual – understood as an integral part of life. Influenced by Buddhist thought, Tàpies believes that a better knowledge of pain allows us to soften its effects and therefore improve our quality of life. The passage of time, which has always been a constant in his work, now takes on fresh nuances when lived as a personal experience which brings greater self-knowledge and a clearer understanding of the world.

He’s consolidated an artistic language which visually conveys both his conception of art and certain philosophical concerns which have been renewed over the years. His practice is still open to the brutality of the present while offering a form which, despite its ductility, remains faithful to its origins. So the works of the last few years aren’t only fully contemporary, they’re also a record of his own past.

[Extract : Antoni Tàpies Collection]

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Antoni Tàpies Collection : Selected Works

Antoni Tàpies : Spaightwood Galleries

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Antoni Tàpies : Artist

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“to remind man of what in reality he is, to give him a theme for reflection, to shock him in order to
rescue him from the madness of inauthenticity and to lead him to self-discovery.” Antoni Tàpies

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Repliquer III
Antoni Tàpies
Colour etching
1981
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Untitled
Antoni Tàpies
Colour etching
1986
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Antoni Tàpies
Nobody is a nobody
Colour etching
1979
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Antoni Tàpies
Negre sobre vermell
ink and collage on paper
2008
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Antoni Tàpies
Affiche avant lettre
Color lithograph
1990
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Tàpies shared a general sensibility which affected artists on both sides of the Atlantic after the Second World War and the dropping of the atomic bomb, and soon expressed an interest in matter – earth, dust, atoms and particles – which took the shape of the use of materials foreign to academic artistic expression and experiments with new techniques. He believes that the notion of matter must also be understood from the point of view of Medieval mysticism as magic, mimesis and alchemy. That is how we must see his wish for his works to have the power to transform our inner selves.

The works of the last years are, most of all, a reflection on pain – both physical and spiritual – understood as an integral part of life. Influenced by Buddhist thought, Tàpies believes that a better knowledge of pain allows us to soften its effects and therefore improve our quality of life. The passage of time, which has always been a constant in his work, now takes on fresh nuances when lived as a personal experience which brings greater self-knowledge and a clearer understanding of the world.

In recent years he has consolidated an artistic language which visually conveys both his conception of art and certain philosophical concerns which have been renewed over the years. His artistic practice is still open to the brutality of the present while offering a form which, despite its ductility, remains faithful to its origins. And so the works of the last few years are not only fully contemporary, they are also a record of his own past. [Extract : Antoni Tàpies Collection]

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Antoni Tàpies Collection : Selected Works

Antoni Tàpies : Spaightwood Galleries

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Alberto Giacometti : Sculptor

Reclining Woman Who Dreams
1929

Suspended Ball
1930-31

Untitled
Bronze

Woman with Her Throat Cut
1932

City Square
1948

Spoon Woman
1926-27

Tall Woman II
1960

Bust of Diego
1955

In every work of art the subject is primordial, whether the artist knows it or not. The measure of the formal qualities is only a sign of the measure of the artist’s obsession with his subject; the form is always in proportion to the obsession. Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti : MoMA Interactive

Richard Serra : Sculpture : Forty Years

Band, 2006

Sequence, 2006

Sequence, 2006

Band, 2006

Band, 2006

Torqued Torus Inversion, 2006.

Torqued Torus Inversion, 2006.

Torqued Torus Inversion, 2006.

Serra graduated from Yale University’s School of Art and Architecture in 1964, where he was primarily trained as a painter. After two years in Europe he started working as a sculptor; living in New York in 1966 he started to use non-traditional materials and techniques to transform traditional definitions of the genre. From his casts of rubber he moved onto metal, at one point even throwing spoonfuls of molten lead against a wall in a warehouse to not just create an object, but to create it through a very distinct, deliberate kind of action, an idea of process which he continued exploring through his subsequent ‘Verb List’ from 1967-8, playful prop pieces (such as ‘One Ton Prop – house of cards’ from 1969) and eventual larger transformations of existing space with his signature standing steel pieces.

I went straight for one of the most striking three new pieces specially made for the show – ‘Band’ from 2006 – letting my feet take me in and out of curves that always looked familiar yet endlessly new despite having seen the floorplan several times, and suddenly felt dizzy with perspectival vertigo (not just from the chanting), constantly thinking about that oft-quoted bit where Serra talks about a pivotal moment in his life, visiting his father working in a shipyard and seeing the large steel works hanging over his head as if about to fall. There’s a lot of steel hanging over your head at this show, whether it is a teetering curving wall or a slab of it attached to the ceiling (with something stronger than superglue i kept telling myself), and at times it can all feel a little claustrophobic, in contrast with his open-air works, but somehow at some point you forget about any sense of danger and become totally humbled and mesmerised with the beauty of aging texture, the artist’s revolutionary decision to present sculpture directly on walls and the ground bypassing pedestals still aglow with possibility, his ongoing, quest for always different, deeper and more abstract spatial experiences winning more converts by initiation. [extract : Lupe Nunez-Fernandez : Saatchi Gallery]

Richard Serra : Sculpture : Forty Years : MoMa Interactive

Video : A conversation with artist Richard Serra : Part 1

Video : A conversation with artist Richard Serra : Part 2