Brussels claims the validity of Tàpies

The Antoni Tàpies exhibition. The Practice of Art, which can be visited at the Bozar-Centre de Belles Arts in Brussels, is the first major retrospective of the Catalan artist in Belgium in the year in which the centenary of his birth is celebrated. The exhibition consists of 122 works that are shown together for the first time and that range from early works to the most contemporary. Beyond the experimentation with form and matter, the exhibition also explores the mystical, philosophical and political dimensions of the artist's universe.

The exhibition, which is held within the framework of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU and can be seen in Brussels until January 7, 2024, begins with the first drawings and self-portraits of the Catalan painter and sculptor and continues with the material paintings of the 1950s and the objects and assemblages of the sixties and seventies. Followed by the varnish paintings of the eighties, which he had started shortly before, during the first years of democracy in Spain. It also includes works from the nineties, when Tàpies continued his formal and material experimentation.

The exhibition is curated by Manuel Borja-Villel and organized by the Queen Sofia Museum in collaboration with the Bozar-Centre de Belles Arts and the Antoni Tàpies Foundation. After passing through the Belgian capital, you can visit the Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Antoni Tàpies Foundation in Barcelona.

Associated with "informal art", Tápies not only investigated the matter, using modest and unconventional materials in his works, such as sand, hair or straw, and creating thick supports with unexpected elements such as latex or tar to later to record signs and symbols of a mystical or archaeological nature, but instead explored the perception of reality and human nature, remember the organizers.

At the opening, the Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, pointed out that the Tàpies exhibition in Brussels represents the "relaunch" of the artist at an international level. "Tàpies, who could have spent some time in oblivion, will have a relaunch. We will have to place him again as the great artist of the second half of the 20th century", said Nadal, who noted that the exhibition is "chronologically very well thought out".