User:LucaRamaekers

Luca Ramaekers 0926223 Lifestyle and Transformation Design

Autonomous Practice Digital Craft

Research

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ABOUT ANTONI TAPIES

Antoni Tàpies

Antoni Tàpies, born in Barcelona in 1923, is one of the most important European abstract artists of the twentieth century. The oeuvre of the self-taught artist consists of drawings, paintings, installations, collages, lithographs and other graphic work. Throughout his life, Tàpies has worked in different styles: from figurative and surreal to abstract. Tàpies has become known with his expressive material painting. In his work the research and experiment with materials is central. It is not the outcome, but the process - the investigation of matter - that matters. Tàpies applied varnish to a cloth and covered it with non-usual materials, such as marble, plaster, wood, iron wire, dust or sand. He did this to bring the artwork as close as possible to reality - the earth. Although the works are abstract, the spectator can always find something concrete in the art of Tàpies. The artist considered it important that there is something in the work that is directly related to life, an image, idea or suggestion.

Key words that summarize the meaning of Antoni Tàpies work:

• Experimental

• Layers

• Extraordinary

Textual quotations from Antoni Tàpies that I found interesting:

"If I can’t change the world, at least I want to change the way people look at it."

"Painting quickly is a calculated act to block out rational thought."

"An image means nothing. It is just a door, leading to the next door. It will never happen that we will find the truth we are looking for just in an image; it will happen behind the last door that the spectator discovers the truth.

My chosen art work

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MY CHOSEN ARTWORK

Artwork: Noir aux deux arcs beiges (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, room 25)

Artist: Antoni Tàpies

Year: 1961

After several years of making some surrealist paintings, Antoni Tapie’s work completely disappears from figuration in 1953. He uses paint as matter and applies it in thick layers, sometimes mixed with sand and cement. The result is large, almost monochrome surfaces in black, gray and ocher colors, evoking the beauty of old weathered walls behind which a mysterious world is hidden.

Material use: Oil Paint, black, grey and shades of ochre. Cement Sand

When I saw the artwork for the first time, the dark color immediately had an impact on me. It has something mysterious, and the little bit of yellow ocher you are going to think more. What story is behind this artwork? How many layers have been used? And why do you see that little bit of color? I also find the shapes that are made with the sand interesting, they are a sort of framework. What interests me about the work is why Tapies made the choice to make the artwork total black and what was his story or thoughts behind it?