Tàpies: a retrospective of the Spanish modernist with an original mixed media artwork

Cirici, Alexandre. Tàpies: Témoin du silence. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, January 1972.

4to.; 372pp; some sunning to text; illustrated brown endpapers; illustrated cream buckram with black lettering on spine. In original illustrated dustjacket, black lettering on spine; rubbed at top and tail of spine; tear at top right of front cover; heavy edgewear at top. In original glassine jacket stamped in black; top half torn off back cover but still attached.

First edition. 

Antoni Tàpies (1923–2012), a luminary in Spanish art, is renowned for his innovative mixed-media paintings, exemplified by the seminal Grey and Green Painting (1957). His works, characterized by their intricate textures and tactile surfaces, integrate materials such as marble dust, found objects, and resin. The social themes pervading his oeuvre reflect the political and environmental milieu of wartime and postwar Spain. Tàpies once mused, “If one draws things in a manner which provides only the barest clue to their meaning, the viewer is forced to fill in the gaps by using his own imagination. He is compelled to participate in the creative act, which I consider very important.” Tàpies initially pursued law while nurturing his artistic inclinations. His friendship with fellow Catalan Joan Miró significantly influenced his early Surrealist endeavors. Incorporating the expressive marks of Paul Klee, Tàpies joined the Art Informel movement, evolving towards abstraction and presaging the Arte Povera movement. Over ensuing decades, his work grew more sophisticated in material choice, striving to evoke the incidental marks of walls and graffiti. His legacy endures through collections at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies Museum in Barcelona, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Reina Sofia National Museum in Madrid, among others.

Tàpies: Témoin du silence (“Witness of Silence”) was written by Alexandre Cirici (1914–83), a distinguished Spanish historian, writer, politician, and art critic who was instrumental in elevating Spanish modernist masters such as Picasso, Miró, and Tàpies. His scholarly works on art, translated into multiple languages, remain authoritative references. This monograph covers Tåpies’s oeuvre through 1972 and features an original mixed media work from Tàpies himself on the reverse front free endpaper. The piece exemplifies his approach, combining tactile elements with symbolic gestures to create a work that is both personal and evocative. The presence of the handprint reflects the artist’s direct connection to the recipient—another signature of sorts. The overall composition reflects Tàpies’s ability to convey profound meaning through seemingly simple, yet deeply textured and layered, forms. The inscription is to Rosamund “Peggi” Bernier, known for founding the Paris-based magazine L’oeil and for her lectures on art history, given in full evening dress at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Five years after receiving this volume she wrote on Tàpies for Vogue [“Spain to U.S.: The Art of Tapies,” May 1977].