ANTONI TAPIÈS, quotes by the Spanish Catalan artist on his painting art and life
Antoni Tàpies (1923 – 2012), his artist quotes on painting art; + life and biography facts. Antoni Tàpies was a Spanish Catalan artist , born in Barcelona. From 1947 on he started to paint in a surrealistic style, but soon he started to make abstract-expressionistic painting. Through the Arte Povare, under the influence of a. o. Eastern calligraphy, Tàpies consequently developed a spontaneous abstract-expressionism with its own symbolic language.
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Antoni Tàpies: Joan Brossa & Antoni Tàpies: ‘Nocturn matinal’, 1970 |
Antoni Tàpies, his artist quotes on his painting art and life stories
– These days there is no such thing as art for the sake of pleasure, whatever transcendent or aesthetic meaning one tends to apply to it…. .Art is made elsewhere, out there, on another planet (far from reality), which somehow we perceive, art is what is not known. (1952)
* source: ”Antoni Tàpies”, on Wikiquote Dutch, (translation C. Whorall
– The way art is made these days, confronts us with the way in which Johannes of the Cross (Spanish medieval mystic, fh) used to contemplate. Steep and rough: not offering any additional satisfaction whatsoever. From Nietzsche and onward, art appears to be from beginning to end, the most inhuman adventure in existence. (Tàpies refers here in 1952 among other things, to the work of the French painters Fautrier and Dubuffet, fh).
* ”Antoni Tàpies”, Wikiquote Dutch, (translation C. Whorall)
– For instance, the symbolism of matter, with its controversies, that is to say, the inner similarity of the deepest being of human and nature. The symbolism of ashes, earth, of mud and clay from which the human being originates and to which he eventually will return; the grains of sand which so obviously indicate the fragility and insignificance of our life and the solidarity emanating from it when one realises that the differences between us (people, fh) are the same as those between one grain of sand and the other; fact is: there is no difference.(his artist quote in 1977)
* source: ”Antoni Tàpies”, Wikiquote Dutch, (translation C. Whorall)
– Did the most modern scientists confirm the ideas of some old philosophers and the intuitive visions of mystics, poets and artists? Without a doubt the need I vaguely felt for using new materials in the art of painting, apart from the influence of some masters, was the result of an effort to call to mind some problems raised by matter, substance and nature. (quote in 1977)
* ”Antoni Tàpies”, Wikiquote Dutch, (translation C. Whorall)
– Metaphors of space have always been introduced into painting, the play of fullness and emptiness, volumes, surfaces, light and shade…. .And, in recent painting, in particular, the notion of ”emptiness has assumed great significance… … This interest in emptiness, in nothingness, is found in many disciplines, in particular in an important sector of modern philosophy. We know, for example, that the philosophers such as Heidegger or Sartre have, at a given moment, made nothingness the center of their thought…
* ‘Celebració de la mel’, Antoni Tàpie, in ”La peinture et le vide”, Fundació Antoni Tàpies,, Brarcelona, 1993, p. 41 –46
– At lucky moments this (suggestive) emanation (of the painting, fh.) 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. (1988)
* ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 26
– (my paintings, fh) for the first time in history have become walls. (about his former Arte-Povare–art, fh)
* ”Antoni Tàpies”, Wikiquote Dutch, (translation C. Whorall)
– I would say off the cuff that I am an anxious person. I worry about everything. I need to know everything. I tend to live in a state of anxiety with the feeling that life is some kind of great catastrophe. 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. I am interested in study, reflection, philosophy — but always as a dilettante. I also consider myself a dilettante as a painter
* as quoted in [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1994_June/ai_15630919/print?tag=artBody;col1 “Antoni Tapies” by Serafin Garcia Ibanez in the ”UNESCO Courier” (June 1994)]
– When I talk of reality, I am always thinking of essentials. Profundity is not located in some remote, inaccessible region. It is rooted in everyday life. That is what great thinkers have taught me, above all the philosophers of the Far East, for whom true wisdom — which I am far from achieving — is the conjunction of samsara (the ordinary world) and nirvana (profound reality). To achieve contact with reality is not to transport oneself elsewhere, it is not transcendence but thorough immersion in one’s surroundings. A reality which is neither purely physical nor metaphysical, but both at once.
* As quoted in “Antoni Tapies” by Serafin Garcia Ibanez in the ”UNESCO Courier” (June 1994)
– The highest wisdom adopts the humblest of bodies. (about the simple materials he used at his Arte Povare time, such as straw and string, fh)
* from: ”De Tweede Helft, beeldende kunst na 1945”, Ad de Visser, Sun Amsterdam, 1998, p. 56
– In the potential of absurdity, hiding in the disparate combination of the various different subjects which in themselves are nothing but daily items (Schwitters collages, fh) equally in the exclusive representation of a normal item (industrial products of Duchamps, fh) taken out of their usual context , is by far the most radical – in its effect comparable to a Japanese Zen koan – paradox to be witnessed, which modern art has produced, one of the most forceful impulses that generated from it.
* source: ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 28
– 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.
* ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 24
– Obviously, the intention was not to go back to images traditionally valued as worthy or holy images and shapes, but exactly the opposite; its main purpose had to be, to realise as sacred art anything which so far had been regarded as of little value and pitiful.(1988)
* taken from: ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Nils Ohlsen, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 38
– It is what makes conscious of the conditions and laws of observing which applied in this manner become a theme on its own. The activity of consciousness depending on the way the work itself proceeds, becomes the subject of my attention this way and it is precisely because of this voyeuristic attitude toward the own observation and experience of the subject that the conscious analytic dimension in the work shows. (about the ambivalence in his own work).
* ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 30
– The artist may rightly venture the opinion that he does not convey ideas, does not preach, nor that he intents 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.
* ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 30
– Reminding people what in reality it is all about, giving them a theme on which to ponder, creating a shock within them, pulling them out of the delusion of non authenticity, enabling them to become aware of their true possibilities (1976).
** ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 25
– I often told the fanatics of realism that there is no such thing as realism in art: it only exists in the mind of the observer. Art is a symbol, a thing conjuring up reality in our mental image. That is why I don’t see any contradiction between abstract and figurative art either.
* source: ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 25
– The material presence of the work only serves as a conveyer launching an invitation to the observer to take part of the comprehensive game of the thousand and one emotions and visions.
* quote from: ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 26
– An image means nothing. It is just a door, leading to the next door. It will never happens that we will find the truth we are looking for just in an image; it will happen behind the last door that the spectator discover the truth, because of his own efforts.
* ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 30
– 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.
* quote from: ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Nils Ohlsen, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 38
– The tattoo can only exist as part of the skin, as a drawing always is an incision in the material and therefore cannot be parted from it.
* ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 27
– 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. A cross could equally stand for crossing something out. It could also be a sign of obstruction. An overturned cross, an X so to speak, could be the symbol of mystery, something for the other side. Then I could paint a cross in such a way that a connection is made between two bars, and in doing so convert it into a symbol of the unlimited. So, many different crosses and X symbols occur in my works.(1988)
* source: ”Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003”, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p.
– How many possibilities may arise from the image of the ‘wall’ and everything diverted from it. Separation, isolation, wailing walls, prison walls. Witnesses of the passing of time : smooth, calm, white surfaces, tortured, old, perished surfaces; signs of human intervention, traces of objects of the force of nature; impressions of battle, of exertion, of destruction, of catastrophes or of renovation, creating and balance; what is left of love, grief, aversion, chaos, romantic enchantment of silted ruins by organic matter; shapes from which one can read the rhythm of nature and the spontaneous mobility of matter. (1980, about his early wall-like paintings, fh)
* artist quote by ”Antoni Tàpies”, Wikiquote Dutch, (translation C. Whorall)
Unsourced artist quotes by the Spanish Catalan painter Antoni Tàpies
– My kind of painting is filled with several significant layers, such as a volatile structure of language. Reality never truly exposes itself in the image. It only comes into being through associations in the mind of the spectator. That which is supposed to be reality in the art of painting is nothing but a symbol, a mystic symbol for reality, 1987. (translation C. Whorall)
– 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. (translation C. Whorall)
– More than any other factor the discontent about the quality of the oil painting and my dissatisfaction with the belief in the accepted, classical world played a major part. That is why everything I did seemed to me a form of abuse of the right minded, 1977. (translation C. Whorall)
– I was particularly fascinated by the numerous phenomena, closely related to the deed of creation itself as well as the shapes and images defined by the spectator. (translation C. Whorall
– There is no art where there is no active observer. As there is no light where there are no eyes.
– More important than subjecting the image to a strict intellectual analysis is enabling the observer to follow the artist on set, which being more or less clear to him – turns his mind into motion.
Antoni Tàpies – art links for his biography facts, life stories and famous art images, created by the Spanish Catalan painter artist
* information on life and creating art by Antoni Tàpies, on Wikipedia
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* FUNDACIÓ ANTONI TÀPIES, for biography facts and images
