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To be sold at our Important Sale: Modern & Contemporary Art + Design & Watches 12 – 14 November 2024
Lot 539 Antoni Tàpies (Spain 1923‑2012). ”Negro Sobre Gris”. Signed Tàpies on the reverse. Gouache, ink and sand on paper laid on canvas, 147 x 102 cm.
Executed in 1967.
800.000 – 1.000.000 SEK
€ 70.000 – 88.000
The Elkon Gallery, New York.
Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona, by 1985.
Stockholms Auktionsverk, 7 December 1994, lot 1358.
The collection of art dealer Kenneth Åberg (1943‑2012), Gothenburg.
Artcurial, Paris, ”Exposition Méditerranée, Sources et Formes du XXe. Siècle”, May-July 1986.
Artcurial, Paris, ”Exposition Méditerranée, Sources et Formes”, May-July 1988.
Born into a Catalan family in Barcelona, Antoni Tàpies continued the tradition of Spanish abstract painting where signs and symbols are important, as they both explain and proclaim. Tàpies’ childhood during the 1930s was to a great extent affected by the ongoing Spanish Civil War, and after attending a law program at a university in Barcelona he abruptly decided, without having taken any lessons in painting, to completely devote himself to the arts in 1946. Even in the early stages of his artistic process Tàpies showed an interest in collage and graffiti, as well as experimenting in the spirit of Dadaism. During the post-war years he developed a heightened interest in Eastern culture, and in the later years of the decade it became a fundamental philosophical influence on his work because of its emphasis on material. Tàpies’ work, painting and sculpting alike, often carry the signature of his heavy brush strokes and relief-like surfaces with a criss-cross of scratches and rents. This personal method and expression of his art is often seen in relation to the movement matièrisme (matter art) or Art Informel. Tàpies is today revered as one of the most important Spanish artists from the post-war period, having formed his own signature personal style, developed and further explored over the decades, always remaining true to the very essence of his artistry.
Presented in the upcoming sale is a characteristic mixed media composition titled “Negro Sobre Gris”, executed in 1967. The artist has collated various mediums together such as gouache, ink and sand and painted with a restrained palette consisting of colours in black, white and grey – typical to works of Tàpies dating from this period in his life. What immediately catches the eye of the viewer in the composition featured in this sale is the impressive size and the bold brush strokes. The calligraphic connotation formed by the black graffiti like ink might lead the viewer’s thoughts to Japanese and Chinese artistic tradition. White lines cut like scars on the surface. By blending the gouache with sand Tàpies creates a rough and confident abstract composition in line with the matièrisme of the post-war period. Like a grand wall filled with an urban frustration, the “Negro Sobre Gris” makes an impact, a statement and a reflection of Tàpies effectful treatment of different materials. The composition has also been reproduced in the large lithograph “La Grande Grise”.
Having experienced the Spanish Civil War and a ruthless dictatorship, Tàpies artworks dating from the 1960s and early 1970s were heavily influenced by his involvement in Spanish and Catalan politics. The violence of the war and the deep scars that it left on the cityscapes and the people of Spain inspired Tàpies to create many of his most interesting and important artworks. They speak of life, experience and humanity from a personal perspective and even though Tàpies might have felt inspired by some of his contemporary artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg during his exhibitions overseas, his use of elements and subtle details were entirely his own way of expression.
“If I paint the way I paint, first of all it’s because I am Catalan. But, like so many others, I am affected by the political drama of Spain as a whole”, wrote Tàpies. “In my painting I want to inscribe all my country’s difficulties, even if I cause displeasure: suffering, painful experiences, prison, a gesture of revolt. Art must live the truth.”
His artworks are consistent, even if the world outside his studio is in constant change and reorganized. He hopes that the viewer of his pictures will understand the surrounding world better and more easily accept what appears alien or strange and feel more love for each other. He strives for the viewer to change opinion and in that sense, he is communicating with his artworks.
During the late 1950s and 1960s, Tàpies’ works were exhibited at numerous important galleries and museums worldwide. In 1962 he was granted a retrospective show at Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The attention achieved from the numerous exhibitions gave Tàpies an impressive international status in the early 1960s and a world spanning reputation as an artist, which is as ever present until this day. ■