Antoni Tàpies: The Imagination of the World
By Charlotte Stace
The solo exhibition “The Imagination of the World” revisits Antoni Tàpies’ early work, exploring artistic influences like Dada and Surrealism, alongside intellectual fields such as psychoanalysis and Marxism in mid-century Barcelona. It also examines the dialogue between these movements and popular vernacular traditions.
The exhibition primarily focuses on Tàpies’ artwork from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, while referencing broader continuities and ruptures in his later work. Its title comes from an essay written by Tàpies late in life, which emphasised the importance of interdisciplinarity and interculturality when making art.
Moving beyond conventional art history and biography, the exhibition presents a range of aesthetic objects to expand Tàpies’ genealogies, engage with contemporary debates on academia, primitivism, the body and nature, and critically explore how his work inspires new ways of understanding the world.