Maleri 2 C

Antonio Tàpies was born in Barcelona and grew up during Franco’s military dictatorship. As an art student he became interested in surrealism, psychoanalysis, and modern science. He moved to Paris and then to New York in 1953, where he became acquainted with American abstract expressionism. Tàpies himself would become a leading exponent of European abstract art in the postwar era. His creative process was inspired not least by the automatism of the surrealists. He began using this intuitive method in the 1950s, experimenting with new materials such as sand, pigment, and latex to create thick, rough pictures whose surfaces resembled cement.

Painting 2 C is painted in dark, earthy tones. The paint, mixed with plastic mass, has been thickly applied. The artist has created vertical scratches, perhaps with the back of his brush, and has also hollowed out several areas. The picture is painted on a wooden board, and in a few places the board itself is exposed. The black stripe across the middle divides the picture in two brown, rectangular forms that have been worked on to different degrees. It also seems as though the artist has pressed a rough, woven cloth down into the painting while it was still wet. Scratches, recesses, and impressions create a relief-like effect.

The title of the picture does not provide any clue as to what it might represent. Tàpies was deeply rooted in the traditions of his native Catalonia, and his pictures allude to personal experiences and memories. He was also fascinated by the mysticism and alchemy of the Middle Ages. At the same time, the materiality of the picture seems to evoke Barcelona’s ageold walls and the scars they suffered from the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War.