Ropa blanca encolada (White Pasted Clothing)
Antonie Tàpies (Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2012)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1960 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on sand board and canvas glazed in a wooden frame
Measurements
602 x 730 mm
Place of origin
Spain
Order this imageCollection
Dudmaston, Shropshire
NT 815227
Caption
This work has a sense of melancholy to it. The white shroud like material over the canvas seems to be smothering whatever is underneath. By 1960 monochromatic paintings, where all content has been stripped away, were quite common but it might be suggested that Tapies is using this as a device to talk about the lack of voice artists had in revolutionary Spain.
Summary
Oil painting on sand, board and canvas, Composition, 1960 by Antonie Tapies (Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2012), signed and dated on back of canvas: Tapies - 1960. An abstract composition, linen placed over a rectangular panel and painted with mixture of white paint and sand. Therefore defining the panel and folds in fabric. An eminently peaceful composition in white linen on a concealed metal base from this dramatic artist. It helps to understand Tàpies’ fascination of magic and transformations, both in inanimate matter and in nature, in order to enter into his work. Just like a magician, Tàpies takes matter and transforms it, perhaps even giving it life. He was drawn to everyday objects as a source of inspiration and here he has taken an everyday shape – it could be a brick – and has shrouded it in mystery. This abstract composition is made up of metal, linen, paint and sand, working materials which have become something else. Tàpies stated in 1966, “Beyond appearances, even the humblest object reveals a deep reality.” Tàpies 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, ‘Pintura Sobre Pepel e Periodico’ (Painting with Newspaper) from 1964 can also be seen at Dudmaston (National Trust Inventory Number 814232).
Provenance
With Sala Gaspar gallery; Sir George Labouchere collection. Bought by private treaty sale from Lord de Ramsay in 2009.
Credit line
Dudmaston, The Sir George Labouchere Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Dealer labels pasted on stretcher Macarron and Sala Gaspar galleries.
Makers and roles
Antonie Tàpies (Barcelona 1923 - Barcelona 2012), artist