Collage de la Fuente

Material

Mixed media on canvas; 75.5 x 54.5 cm

Datierung

1962

About the artist

After he had finished high school, the Catalan painter and graphic designer began to study law but quit soon after to devote himself solely to painting – Tàpies was a self-educated painter. In 1950 he was granted a one year scholarship in Paris where he studied the works of Jean Dubuffet and Jean Fautriers. They proved to be crucial for the development of his murals which made him famous and which constituted his art anew after a phase of figurative, magical Surrealism. The dried, haptic crust, which he often used for the murals, consists of sand, bone glue and pigments.
Another technique of Tàpies is the pintura matèrica in which non artistic materials like clothes and everyday objects are incorporated into the paintings. Additionally he was also interested in graphic reproduction. Despite glimpses of figurative objects and symbols, Tàpies pictorial language is mostly abstract and eludes a clear interpretation.
In 1984 the artist established the Antoni Tàpies Foundation in Barcelona, a centre for modern art which now exhibits also Tàpies own works. He is considered the most prominent representative of Spanish informal and belongs to the most important artists of the 20th century.