ANTONI TAPIES: CISTELL (basket in catalan), 1982 - Original etching, 11/75 edition. ORIGINAL 61 x 80 cm SIGNED ETCHING, In fine condition.
The son of Josep Tàpies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni Tàpies Puig was born in Barcelona on 13 December 1923. His father was a lawyer and Catalan nationalist who served briefly with the Republican government. Due to this, Tàpies grew up in an environment where he was exposed to a variety of cultural and social experiences of leaders in the Catalan public life and its republicanism. His maternal grandmother also exposed him to this world with her great involvement in civil and political activities.

Tàpies was first introduced to modern art as he entered secondary school in 1934. He became inspired by the famous Christmas issue of the magazine, D’ací i d’allà, which contained reproductions of works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso. At 17, Tàpies suffered a near-fatal heart attack caused by tuberculosis. He spent two years as a convalescent in the mountains, reading widely and pursuing an interest in art that had already expressed itself when he was in his early teens.

Tàpies studied at the German School of Barcelona. After studying law for three years, he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only to his painting. In 1945 Tàpies began experimenting with materials. At this time he also became increasingly interested in philosophy, especially that of Jean-Paul Sartre as well as Eastern thought.He became known as one of Spain's most renowned artists in the second half of the 20th century. His abstract art and other avant-garde works were displayed in many major museums all over the world.In 1954, Tàpies married Teresa Barba Fabregas. Together, they had three children Antoni, Miguel and Clara.He lived mainly in Barcelona.

Tàpies died on 6 February 2012 at the age of 88.

Tàpies first came into contact with contemporary art as a teenager through the magazine D’Ací i D’Allà, published in Barcelona, and during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), while he was still at school, he taught himself to draw and paint. On a French government scholarship in the early 1950s, he lived in Paris, to which he often returned. Both in Europe and beyond, the highly influential French critic and curator Michel Tapié enthusiastically promoted the work of Tàpies.

In 1948, Tàpies helped co-found the first post-war movement in Spain known as Dau al Set which was connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist Movements. The main leader and founder of Dau al Set was the poet Joan Brossa. The movement also had a publication of the same name, Dau al Set. Tàpies started as a surrealist painter, his early works were influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró;but soon became an informal artist, working in a style known as pintura matèrica, in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. In 1953, he began working in mixed media; which is considered his most original contribution to art. One of the first to create serious art in this way, he added clay and marble dust to his paint and used waste paper, string, and rags (Grey and Green Painting, Tate Gallery, London, 1957). Canvas Burned to Matter from c. 1960, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is an example of the artist's mixed media assemblages that combine the principles of Dada and Surrealism.