Lot Essay
Largely a self-taught artist, by the mid 1950s Tàpies had developed a style truly his own. A thick ground was laid down on the canvas using clay and marble dust into which he would draw, scratch and incise marks. He explained that his paintings were "truly experimental fields of battle", and that, "in my pictures destruction led up to aesthetic tranquility":
"Like a researcher in his laboratory, I am the first spectator of the suggestions drawn from the materials," he wrote, "I unleash their expressive possibilities, even if I do not have a very clear idea of what I am going to do. As I go along with my work I formulate my thought, and from this struggle between what I want and the reality of the material - from this tension - is born an equilibrium. (As quoted in: Peter Selz, "I am a Catalan", Stiles and Selz Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, University of California Press 1996, p. 55).
Bild LXVI is a sparse and haunting piece in the manner of the Tate Gallery's Peinture Grise et Verte of the same year. A vast grey void surrounds what appears to be a chest of drawers or perhaps a door - two of the artist's favourite motifs. Into the material of this deliberately ambiguous form is incised a strongly delinerated X - a trademark device that the artist uses to focus attention onto a specific area within the picture. "When I paint a sign, an X or cross or spiral," he says, "I experience a certain satisfaction. I see that the picture receives a real force with this sign." (As quoted in: Ex. Cat: New York, Pace Gallery, Antoni Tàpies; Recent Works, 1993, p. 7).
In the present painting, all the emphasis is given to the materiality of the chest of drawers, which is further emphasised by the flat non-textural space around it. The combination of these strongly contrasting elements brings a meditative quality to the picture. By focusing our attention on everyday objects, Tàpies believes that they can attain a transcendental quality very much in the manner of Mother Theresa's famous observation that you can find God even in pots and pans.
"Sometimes in my work there is homage to significant objects: paper, cardboard, refuse... Tirelessly, we must try to habituate the public to consider that there are a thousand things worthy of being classified in the category of art, that is to say, of man. Many things, as small as they might at first appear, become, seen in the full light of day, infinitely greater and more worthy of respect than all the things conventionally judged important. I have never believed in the intrinsic value of art. In itself it seems to me to be nothing. What is important is its role as a spur, a springboard, which helps us attain knowledge. I also find it ridiculous that some people want to "enrich" it by an overabundance of colours, of composition, of work... The work of art is a simple support of meditation, an artifice serving to fix the attention, to stabilize or excite the mind; its value can only be judged by its results." (op.cit., p. 56).
"Like a researcher in his laboratory, I am the first spectator of the suggestions drawn from the materials," he wrote, "I unleash their expressive possibilities, even if I do not have a very clear idea of what I am going to do. As I go along with my work I formulate my thought, and from this struggle between what I want and the reality of the material - from this tension - is born an equilibrium. (As quoted in: Peter Selz, "I am a Catalan", Stiles and Selz Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, University of California Press 1996, p. 55).
Bild LXVI is a sparse and haunting piece in the manner of the Tate Gallery's Peinture Grise et Verte of the same year. A vast grey void surrounds what appears to be a chest of drawers or perhaps a door - two of the artist's favourite motifs. Into the material of this deliberately ambiguous form is incised a strongly delinerated X - a trademark device that the artist uses to focus attention onto a specific area within the picture. "When I paint a sign, an X or cross or spiral," he says, "I experience a certain satisfaction. I see that the picture receives a real force with this sign." (As quoted in: Ex. Cat: New York, Pace Gallery, Antoni Tàpies; Recent Works, 1993, p. 7).
In the present painting, all the emphasis is given to the materiality of the chest of drawers, which is further emphasised by the flat non-textural space around it. The combination of these strongly contrasting elements brings a meditative quality to the picture. By focusing our attention on everyday objects, Tàpies believes that they can attain a transcendental quality very much in the manner of Mother Theresa's famous observation that you can find God even in pots and pans.
"Sometimes in my work there is homage to significant objects: paper, cardboard, refuse... Tirelessly, we must try to habituate the public to consider that there are a thousand things worthy of being classified in the category of art, that is to say, of man. Many things, as small as they might at first appear, become, seen in the full light of day, infinitely greater and more worthy of respect than all the things conventionally judged important. I have never believed in the intrinsic value of art. In itself it seems to me to be nothing. What is important is its role as a spur, a springboard, which helps us attain knowledge. I also find it ridiculous that some people want to "enrich" it by an overabundance of colours, of composition, of work... The work of art is a simple support of meditation, an artifice serving to fix the attention, to stabilize or excite the mind; its value can only be judged by its results." (op.cit., p. 56).