Antoni Tapies
Antoni Tapies
Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tàpieswas a Spanish painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth13 December 1923
CountrySpain
struggle reality ideas
Like a researcher in his laboratory, I am the first spectator of the suggestions drawn from the materials. I unleash their expressive possibilities, even if I do not have a very clear idea of what I am going to do. As I go along with my work I formulate my thought, and from this struggle between what I want and the reality of the material - from this tension - is born an equilibrium.
space shapes firsts
A cross could be a shape for expressing something spacious, such as the coordinators of space. That could be called its first significance or its first relevance.
religious art loss
In our world, in which religious images are losing their meaning, in which our customs are getting more and more secular, we are losing our sense of the eternal. I think it's a loss that has done a great deal of damage to modern art. Painting is a return to origins.
body materials highest
The highest wisdom adopts the humblest of bodies.
artist ideas chinese
All my pictures are a kind of revision of my original idea. This is surely very different from the way in which Japanese or Chinese artists work: their themes are pre-ordained, whereas mine are invented at will.
block painting rational
Painting quickly is a calculated act to block out rational thought.
views ideas political
I never view aesthetic ideas as having an existence purely of their own but as a function they have in connection with political or moral values.
artist roots white
Starting with approaching the spot where the painting is to be done, meanwhile realising the emptiness of the mind, up to the method of 'the flying white', of the rule of the singular stroke of the brush... there is a proper tradition in which the artist is fully aware of the fact that only the pure and empty spontaneity enables him to embrace without hesitating all apparitions and to truly penetrate into the roots of things.
taken thinking lucky
At lucky moments this emanation could overwhelm the spectator in such a way, that because of all sorts of associations in his thinking, he could finally be taken to those areas which also had moved me so deeply and made me think I should draw the attention of others to it.
artist perspective experience
The artist has to make the viewer understand that his world is too narrow, he has to open up to new perspectives.
generosity desire needs
I feel the desire, or rather the intense need, to do something useful for society, and that is what stimulates me. In every situation I always look for what is positive and beneficial for my fellow citizens.
wise lying communication
The artist may rightly venture the opinion that he does not convey ideas, does not preach, nor does he intend to convert people by using mass communication techniques... Better than handing out all kinds of wise advice, he could show life itself; he could awake forces lying dormant in everybody. He could launch an invitation to create direct and personal experiences.
philosophy reflection study
I am interested in study, reflection, philosophy - but always as a dilettante. I also consider myself a dilettante as a painter.