Antoni Tàpies Prints

Antoni TĂ pies

Antoni TĂ pies

Antoni TĂ pies Petrificada Petrificante

Goldmark 2009

Antoni Tàpies

Antoni Tàpies, who has been described

by Robert Motherwell as the greatest living European artist, was born in Barcelona in 1923. As a boy he taught himself to draw and paint, being influenced by Van Gogh and Picasso, but in the immediate post-war period his art was mostly surrealist in character and showed his interest in Klee and Miró. In 1948 he was cofounder of the Spanish Dau-al-Set movement with the aim of promoting Surrealism and Dadaism and having a particular interest in dream imagery and automatism. In Tàpies’ work this often took the form of hideous beings in erotic situations or demonstrating a mocking attitude towards religion. He held his first solo exhibition in Barcelona in 1950.

Perhaps Tàpies’ most original contribution to Art Informel was the use of non-traditional art materials in his work, for example mixing clay and marble dust with his paint. During the 1950s he extended this mixed media approach by incorporating waste paper, string, rags and even parts of furniture into his art. In the 1970s Tàpies showed an interest in Pop-Art and in 1984 he established his own Fundacio Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona endowed with a large collection of his work.

In the early 1950s Tàpies spent time in Paris and has continued to return there.

At that time he was influenced by, and became a leading exponent of, Art Informel in which the artwork tended to lack form or structure. Another strain of this art was called Tachism, derived from the French word tache meaning a spot or stain and overall this style was regarded as the European equivalent of American abstract expressionism.

Tàpies produced his first recorded graphic works in 1947 and has remained a prolific and important printmaker since then, the catalogue raisonné listing nearly 1,100 prints produced by 1986. In 1991 the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a major retrospective exhibition of his prints and during the next two years the show travelled to various venues in the U.S.A., Central and South America.

Tàpies has written In my art I seek to remind man of what reality he is, to give him a theme for reflection, to shock him in order to rescue him from the madness of inauthenticity and to lead him to self-discovery.

5

1. coloured etching and aquatint 51.5 x 81 cm signed ÂŁ1950 unsigned ÂŁ850 *the unsigned print has a centre-fold as issued

To order phone 01572 821424 6

2. coloured etching and engraving with carborundum and embossing 51.5 x 40 cm signed ÂŁ1750 unsigned ÂŁ750

visit www.recentacquisitions.com 8

all prices include framing, vat and uk delivery

3. coloured etching and engraving with carborundum and chine collĂŠ 51.5 x 40 cm signed ÂŁ1950 unsigned ÂŁ850

10

4. coloured etching and embossing 52.5 x 82.3 cm signed ÂŁ1950 unsigned ÂŁ850 *the unsigned print has four vertical folds as issued and is printed on wider paper with a border at each end

To order phone 01572 821424 12

5. coloured etching and engraving with carborundum and embossing 51.5 x 40 cm signed ÂŁ2250 unsigned ÂŁ950

visit www.recentacquisitions.com 14

all prices include framing, vat and uk delivery

6. coloured etching and aquatint with embossing 51.5 x 40 cm signed ÂŁ1750 we have no unsigned copy of this print

16

7. coloured etching, aquatint and engraving with carborundum on reproduction newspaper 51 x 80.5 cm signed ÂŁ2750 unsigned ÂŁ1250 *the unsigned print has a centre-fold as issued

To order phone 01572 821424 18

8. coloured etching and aquatint with embossing 51.5 x 40 cm signed ÂŁ1950 unsigned ÂŁ850

visit www.recentacquisitions.com 20

all prices include framing, vat and uk delivery

Petrificada Petrificante The Petrifying Petrified Eight coloured etchings, some with aquatint, engraving, carborundum or embossing.

Published in 1978.

The edition consists of 125 unsigned and 50 signed copies with a further 20 signed Hors Commerce sets.

Each print is accompanied by a copy of the signed justification page.

To order phone 01572 821424

27

27

GOLDMARK GALLERY, 14 ORANGE STREET UPPINGHAM, RUTLAND, LE15 9SQ www.goldmarkart.com info@goldmarkart.com

01572 821424