Antoni Tàpies. Profound Certainty

This exhibition is an extension of the one that was presented, with the same name, in the Antoni Tàpies Foundation several months after its inauguration in 1991. On that occasion nineteen works were gathered and now works not included in the previous edition are added, and a series of bronze and chamotte clay sculptures from the same period. One of the most interesting aspects of "Profound Certainty" is the material that Tàpies used to capture his usual repertoire of images: crosses, glasses, self-portraits, the body, the skull and the bones, chairs, landscapes, letters and figures. The Catalan artist used the synthetic textiles he used to cover and protect the floor of his studio. Tàpies stepped and worked on them (both in the studio in Campins and in Barcelona) and, therefore, they had paint splashes, spots and traces; others, however, were still to be released. These are textiles of different kinds and quality (plastic, synthetic leather, cotton and polyester); on some occasions he painted on the reverse, and on others on the obverse.

A certain pessimism

In these works a certain sadness predominates, a certain pessimism. Tàpies at that time lived a period in which he made constant references to death and the physical pain implicit in life. However, it is not an allusion to pain to victimize, but to become aware of its existence and find ways to coexist with it. These reflections are related to the Buddhist philosophy, which considers that pain is an integral part of the fact of living. Therefore, Buddhism invites to carry out a process of introspection that allows establishing the origin of pain in order to eliminate its causes. In his work, Tàpies echoed these teachings, especially from the 1980s and throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the period in which the set of works in this exhibition is framed..