TÀPIES IN THE 1960s SCARS OF THE REAL

Transcription

1 PRESS RELEASE ANTWERP, NOVEMBER 27 TH 2013 TÀPIES IN THE 1960s SCARS OF THE REAL Axel Vervoordt Gallery Vlaeykensgang Oude Koornmarkt Antwerp Belgium 5 December January 2014 Opening on December 5 th, 6-9pm Relievo negro perforado, 1961, mixed media on canvas, 65 x 81 cm Contact for more info and high resolution images Jenke Van den Akkerveken jenke@axelvervoordtgallery.com

2 Axel Vervoordt Gallery is proud to present the new exhibition Tàpies in the 1960s Scars of the Real. I liked to imagine artistic activity being a task as intense as possible, in the service of knowledge, influencing our life, making us see the falsity of what surrounds us, and permitting us to accept authentic reality. (Antoni Tàpies) After the Spanish Civil War and growing up under the Franco regime, Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona, ) felt the deep necessity to respond to the horrors that had changed his world-view and had made him question his own identity and that of the country he lived in. The only way of being able to freely express himself was to become an artist. Tàpies is a Catalan name derived from the word tàpia, meaning wall. Antoni Tàpies could not have been born with a name that suited him any better. All his life, the artist had been fascinated by the walls he had been surrounded by and upon which people had inscribed their fears and doubts, their desires and frustrations. The walls of Tàpies youth bore witness to the horrors of the inhuman turn Spain and the entire world was taking at that time. They were charged with emotions, marked by violence, grief and by the desperate longing for another world. Tàpies decided to make paintings like the Catalan walls from his youth. On his paintings ideas and emotions are scratched into matter into new, obscure, symbolic universes. Like walls, his paintings deny direct access and block vision. They act like a two-sided mirror in between two worlds. Whatever lies behind the wall can never be touched, but the wall itself, reflecting the crude reality of what is here, holds the promise of the existence of another side. Each canvas was a battlefield on which the wounds multiplied over and over again, to infinity. And then came the surprise. All that frenetic movement [ ] suddenly took a qualitative leap. The eye could no longer perceive the differences. Everything came together in a uniform mass. What had been burning ebullition transformed itself on its own into static silence. (Antoni Tàpies) For Tàpies a painting should confront the viewer with a glimpse of true reality, of the Real in its Eastern understanding and thus referring to an original principle, a primordial unity of all, in order to alter the viewer s vision on the world and on himself. Tàpies artistic language is the result of a continued meditative and creative process in which the artist tries to merge his own body and soul with this concept of the Real. In his work Tàpies presents the Real by abolishing the limits between matter and content and in the guise of archetypical symbols that often come from his everyday life (crosses, sticks, mathematical signs ), but that nevertheless carry a meaning that goes beyond their common, daily use. He intuitively selects and combines tangible elements that are rooted in our collective memory, re-uses them in different constellations and thus invites the viewer to continually re-interrogate what is given. Tàpies walls are confronting mirrors, not showing but only holding the promise of another side. In the backdrop of the wars, they don t show the wounds of the battle, but reflect its scars. The shock of the wound would be unbearable; the scar, however, veils the suffering, is a healed wound. Tàpies scars of the Real still show the traces of a violent breaking though the walls; they keep the memory of the wound alive, but also hold the comforting possibility and the hope of healing.

3 Composicio vertical negra, 1960, mixed media on wood, 195 x 130 cm

4 Forma d armari inclinada, 1968, mixed media on wood, 170 x 195cm

5 Paper encolat damunt carto, 1960, paint and collage on cardboard, 68,5 x 50 cm