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

ANTONI TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1923–2012). “Petjada,” 1987. Print. Copy H.C. IX/XV. Signed and dated in pencil. Measurements: 25 x 45 cm (print); 50 x 70 cm (paper). In *Petjada* (“Footprint”), Antoni Tàpies draws on one of the fundamental motifs of his artistic language, synthesizing the artist’s interest in transforming elementary signs and material gestures into images rich in meaning. Created in 1987, the work belongs to the mature period of the artist’s printmaking, when printmaking had become a fundamental medium within his career. Tàpies understood printmaking not as a mere reproduction of his painting, but as an autonomous field of experimentation, in which the possibilities of printing, paper, texture, and gesture allowed him to develop his own unique visual vocabulary. Initially self-taught, Tàpies took up drawing and painting at a very young age, and during the 1940s he came into contact with the European avant-garde and contemporary thought. In 1948, he was one of the founders of the Dau al Set group. Throughout his career, he held exhibitions around the world, at prominent galleries and museums such as the Guggenheim in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. His awards include the Prince of Asturias Award, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association, the National Culture Award, the Grand Prix de la Peinture in France, among others, and retrospective exhibitions have been dedicated to him in Tokyo, New York, Rome, Amsterdam, Madrid, Venice, Milan, Vienna, and Brussels. His works are represented in major national and international museums, such as the foundation that bears his name in Barcelona, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheims in Berlin, Bilbao, and New York, the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan, MoMA in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.