A thought for Antoni Tàpies..

Antoni Tàpies (13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012)

A thought for Antoni Tàpies i Puig who died yesterday (6 February 2012).Tàpies was a Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist. One of the most famous European artists of his generation.
Tàpies was perhaps the best-known Catalan artist to emerge in the period since the Second World War.

On the press today:

La Vanguardia: Tàpies es mucho más que un pintor, o un artista que experimentó con nuevos lenguajes estéticos. No es sólo un referente, indispensable, del informalismo en Europa. Es un escritor, un filósofo - plástico, si se quiere -, que ha reflexionado sobre la esencia del ser humano derrocando prejuicios y barreras. Antoni Tàpies ha abierto puertas a Oriente cuando nadie imaginaba que existían ciertas conexiones. Fue un pensador que se dio cuenta, en una España gris y triste, que las Humanidades no podían dar la espalda a la Ciencia. Tàpies es compromiso y puente...

New York Times : "Antoni Tàpies, a largely self-taught Spanish abstract painter whose seductive, tactile surfaces, often scratched with mysterious graffiti-like marks, made use of unconventional materials like marble dust, ground chalk, sand and earth, died on Monday in Barcelona. He was 88...

Associated Press :  His work has been displayed in major museums across the world, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
"He was the most radically Catalan artist in his thinking, his expression and references and at the same time the most universal in his language and international projection," Catalan regional president Artur Mas said.
Tapies — who won many awards over the course of his career, including the 2003 Velazquez Prize, Spain's top art award — was known for sprawling, abstract works that sometimes featured discarded everyday materials and graffiti-like scrawls..

Le Figaro: Antoni Tàpies, le nom de soleil est synonyme d'art abstrait en Europe, de toiles couleurs de terre, de poussière et d'ombres, de compositions picturales méditatives, proches de la sculpture, qui incorporaient parfois des matériaux de récupération. L'œuvre d'Antoni Tàpies, artiste autodidacte et pourtant lauréat de nombreux prix et récompenses, a été associée dès ses débuts à d'autres grands noms de l'art du XXe siècle, comme l'autre grand peintre catalan Joan Miro aux étoiles poétiques, et au mouvement surréaliste...