The iconographic coincidence between medieval manuscripts and Tàpies paintings is not by chance. Later in history, in Italian Renaissance, those medieval codex lost the unity between painting and writing, turning into a new conception of iconic totally which excluded the signs of writing.
For this reason, the only written element in Tàpies works is his signature. A fruitful sediment in his works. His signature grows, multiplies itself, becomes a cross, an X, a staircase, a graphite, a continuous regression which allows to go deep into the primordial stages of painting. Numbers and alphabetical signs enjoy the privilege of immateriality.
Let us consider now Tàpies works from another perspective. In his youth he was influenced by the turbulent political events, with Spanish Civil War and Catalan struggle for cultural survival. His works from the early seventies are heavily politically charged with titles like Romanesque paintings and barretina or Sardana from 1971, Inscriptions and four bars on burlap from 1971/72 among others, where we see a Tàpies always supporting the Catalan cause, involved in the Caputxinada and the Catalan Assembly. He also contributed to the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) with a powerful gouache which became a notable icon. The artist supported the catalanity of PSUC for their great contribution to the fight for freedom.
We already miss Tàpies personality, master of matter, of symbolism, and artist with a strong civil commitment with the Catalan cause. A man with progressive ideas. An artist who managed to capture the poetry in every-day life, in that banality that sometimes can corrupt the spirits.
We find in Tàpies' works a notion of Art as an amplifier of consciousness and as a humanist social instrument that determines all of his cronology.
Tàpies, an experimental artist, committed and brave. Our gratitude to the person, and to the master that will always be a referent.
Montse Balletbó
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