20 - ANTONI TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1923–2012).

ANTONI TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1923–2012). “Book,” 1987. Bronze. Edition: P/A. Signed, dated, and inscribed. Measurements: 44 x 63 cm. Provenance: Carles Taché Gallery, Barcelona. Exhibitions: “Antoni Tàpies. Bronzes intervinguts.” Museu de Valls, 2024. Reproduced in the catalog, p. 12. Work dedicated to Carles Taché. The work presented here belongs to the body of bronze sculptures that Antoni Tàpies created beginning in the 1980s, a period in which he translated some of the fundamental principles of his artistic language into three-dimensional form. Although objects and the three-dimensional dimension had been present in his work since his early years, it was especially through his collaboration with his gallerist Carles Taché that the artist delved deeper into the expressive possibilities of bronze. In *Libro*, Tàpies transforms an everyday object into a sculptural form with an intense material presence. The appearance of an open book serves as a support for a rough surface, worked with reliefs, incisions, and symbols that refer to his unique symbolic universe. On one of the pages appears the imprint of a bare foot, while the other is filled with calligraphic-looking marks. These elements, recurring in his artistic vocabulary, introduce references to the body, writing, and memory, without offering a definitive interpretation. The book, traditionally associated with knowledge and the transmission of thought, is thus transformed into a surface for artistic experimentation. Tàpies sets aside its usual function to explore the possibilities of the material and the sign, establishing a dialogue between object, matter, and meaning. The dedication to Carles Taché also adds documentary value to the piece and links it directly to the context in which the artist developed this aspect of his work. Antoni Tàpies explored three-dimensionality in his work from the very beginning—a body of work in which everyday objects played a significant role. Despite this predilection for three-dimensional work, it took nearly four decades of artistic practice before Tàpies turned his hand to bronze sculpture. It was his gallerist, Carles Taché, who encouraged him to do so. The sculpture resembles an open book with rough, textural surfaces (characteristic of Tàpies’s visual identity), featuring the engraved silhouette of a barefoot footprint on the left-hand page and calligraphic inscriptions on the right-hand page. Antoni Tàpies was one of the most important Spanish artists of the second half of the 20th century and a key figure in European Informalism. Initially self-taught, he abandoned his law studies to devote himself to art and, in the 1940s, began to develop a language based on materiality, experimentation, and the incorporation of everyday signs and objects. In 1948, he helped found the Dau al Set group, which played a decisive role in the renewal of the Catalan artistic avant-garde. His international reputation was established in the 1950s through numerous exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Japan. He received major awards, including the Velázquez Prize for Plastic Arts and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, and his work is represented in major international museums and collections, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Modern in London. His graphic work occupies a central place in his body of work, as he viewed printmaking not merely as reproduction but as a genuine medium of artistic creation.