Pintura sobre pepel e periodico (Painting with Newspaper), 1964
Antonie Tàpies (Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2012)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1964 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas with paper, sand and plaster in a wooden frame
Measurements
525 x 595 mm
Place of origin
Spain
Order this imageCollection
Dudmaston, Shropshire
NT 814232
Summary
Oil painting on canvas with paper, sand, and plaster, Pintura sobre pepel e periodico (Painting with Newspaper), 1964 by Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2012), painted in black on back of canvas: Tapies 1964. Design gouged out of plaster and picked out in black, but otherwise a dull brown colour. 'Bolsa de Barcelona' - the Barcelone Stock Exchange. Lines and shapes are scribbled into the texture of this abstract composition. There is a suggestion of graffiti, a scribbling on the wall, a motif which was the hallmark of the artist’s work from 1954. He insists on the identity of his materials and creates a space which is impossible to enter. Yet the harshness of such a motif is softened by the sensitivity of the textures. His language signs (graffiti) came about, ‘instinctively and automatically…I have a spiritual respect for what I have done because my work is dictated by impulses. In a sense I am like a medium.’ (Tàpies, ‘Thirty three years of his work’ Albrighton Knox Art Gallery, USA) Tàpies's greatest contribution to art is considered to be his mixed media work where non-artistic materials are incorporated into his paintings to create a serious art form. Everyday objects incorporated into his work have included string, waste paper, buckets, mirrors, silk stockings and even a desk in ‘Desk with Straw,’ where the actual desk served as the canvas. Sir George Labouchere referred to Tàpies as “the abstract artist to end all abstract artists.” A second piece by Tapies, ‘Ropa Blanca Encolada’ (White Pasted Cloth) from 1960 can also be seen at Dudmaston (National Trust Inventory Number 815227).
Provenance
With Sala Gaspar, Barcelona; Sir George Labouchere collection.
Credit line
Dudmaston, The Sir George Labouchere Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
SALA GASPAR CONSEJO DE CIENTO 323, BARCELONA (label pasted on stretcher)
Makers and roles
Antonie Tàpies (Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2012), artist
References
Lledo 1996 Elena Lledo, “Contemporary art at Dudmaston: the Spanish connection.” Apollo April, 1996, pp.52-3