Antoni Tàpies

Born in Barcelona, Tàpies was the leading figure of Catalan informalism. From the mid-fifties he abandoned representation for the matter painting that would define him: sand, marble dust, latex, cloth and found objects worked into surfaces that read as walls, doors, or the residue of something that has happened.

A recurring vocabulary of crosses, letters and bodily marks runs through six decades of work. Awarded the Praemium Imperiale and represented in major collections worldwide, he continued working until shortly before his death in his native city.