Antoni Tapies was born in Barcelona, Spain in the year 1923. Tapies was a sculptor and painter and even enjoyed discussing art theory.
Price range information: The artist was very prolific and tried many mediums. Oils can range from $5,000 to $ 828,000. Acrylics can range from 1,000 to $30,000. Lithographs and color lithographs range from $500 to $5,000. The artist also made woodcuts and monotypes as well as sculptures but not enough information is available to make a consistent price schedule.
This clip features some works by the artist from a show given in 2010.
Tapies father was a lawyer and top Republican party leader. When Tapies was only seventeen years old the artist had a heart attack from tuberculosis. He took two years to recover from this and spent this time exploring and hiking in the mountains of Europe. Tapies then set out for law school and studied for three years at the German School of Barcelona.
In 1943 the artist decided to devote himself full time to painting.
In the early 1950s the artist received a grant from the French government to attend school so he moved to Paris.
Tapies started out as a Surrealist painter. He was a leader of a group called Dau al Set, it had elements of the Surrealist and Dada movements. As an artist he was inspired by Joan Miro. Miro thought painting should be about expression rather than just about painting pretty paintings and portraits that satisfied the wealthy clients that could afford it. Below is an example of Joan Miro’s art titled “Fish.”
Tapies was able to establish himself with a strong following in the late 1950s.
In the fifties the artist started using non art materials in his work. Similar to artists Sandy Blow and Alberto Burri whom I wrote about yesterday, the artist enjoys using such items as paint mixed with clay or marble dust. He also used string and rags in his work. Blow sometimes used cut canvas in her works.
In the 1970s the artist started to paint furniture in some works. During this time period the artist was also among the first to use spray paint on canvas.
To compare him to another artist I would say it would be Julian Schnabel or Alberto Burri. Since I wrote about Burri last time lets find a Julian Schnabel work that is close visually to Tapies’ style. Here is a wonderful example of Julian Schnabel’s style. I could imagine Tapies doing the same type of painting using a map of Catalonia and using the colors of the region’s flag.
Tapies passed away in February of 2012 at the age of eighty eight.
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