Deux noirs et carton

Etching in ochre, black and grey, ed. 18/75
64 x 89 cm

Antoni Tàpies used thick impasto, collage, found objects and graffitis in his first creations. He quickly turned toward abstract pieces into which he incorporated various materials, well before the arte povera movement. He was one of the first artists to lend nobility to the unacademic mixing of materials affiliated with other domains, such as sculpture, nature and waste (organic plant matter, cords, torn papers, rags, chunks of earth and fragments of stone), into his oeuvre. In his work, Antoni Tàpies showed a special interest in lacerations, gashes and scratches within his compositions. He described those pieces as “battle eld[s] on which the wounds multiplied over and over again”. He explored a variety of media, including printing and engraving, like here, into which he introduced different techniques like embossing, collage, flock printing, lacerations, folding and decoupage.