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Antoni Tàpies was born in 1923 in Barcelona (Spain). He studied law and drawing at the same time at the Valls Academy (1943). The military uprising led by General Franco from Morocco spread throughout Spain and led to the Civil War. Antoni Tapiès, the interior opponent of the dictator, is definitely marked by this atrocious war.

In 1948 he co-founded the group "Dau al Set" and the magazine of the same name. Met Joan Miró and after a period of producing surrealist works, Tapiès became interested in oriental art and philosophy, especially calligraphy. Tàpies transmutes the most diverse materials, often the poorest, into pictorial signs.

His first personal exhibition is organized in 1950. The artist includes colors and fossils in blocks pasted with glue, sand, and plaster that will become "walls that will attest to the martyrdom of our people." Tapiès uses newspaper, pieces of string for a collage of provocative social meaning.

In 1951, in Paris, he met Braque, Picasso, and discovered informal art with Dubuffet and Fautrier and the writings of Michel Tapié. The artist turned towards more figurative compositions towards the end of the 60s. The cross is a recurring sign in his work, be it the painted work or the graphic work, numerous works. that he was developing in parallel. His lacerated and scratched compositions continue to express a critical stance. The imprints and traces reveal an inner meditation.

From the beginning of the 80's, Tapiès made "installations" and dedicated himself to the art of ceramics and mosaics. Starting in 1962, some major museums organized retrospectives of his work (Hanovre in 1962, Vienna in 1968, Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1973, traveling retrospective in the United States in 1988 ...).

Antoni Tapiès is the author of several written works of reflections about art: "Practice of art" (1970), "Art against Aesthetics" (1974). Antoni Tapiès lived and worked in Barcelona, ​​the city where his Foundation is located, created in 1984. The artist died on February 6, 2012, he was 88 years old.

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