The solo exhibition The Imagination of the World proposes a revision of the work of Antoni Tàpies based on ideas found in his earliest period of production. With Tàpies as the centre of the project, the exhibition seeks to map out a network of relationships between active agents, discourses and practices, as related to two key areas: on the one hand, the complex assimilation of artistic tendencies—such as dada and surrealism—and currents of thought—psychoanalysis, Marxism—in Barcelona in that period; on the other hand, the dialogue of these movements with various forms of the vernacular tradition of popular culture. The curatorial selection of works will focus on the period from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, while also suggesting other possible areas of continuity or rupture over the following decades.
The exhibition takes its title from an essay written by the artist at the end of his life, where ideas related to inter-disciplinarity and interculturality play a significant role. Basing itself on theoretical positions that seek to go beyond art history and the biographical model, the exhibition will feature a multiplicity of aesthetic objects with diverse origins, with a three-fold aim: first, to broaden the genealogies of Tàpies ’world towards less habitual references, analysing texts and images as well as contexts and imaginary realms; second, to raise concerns in relation to various current debates on the academy, primitivist modes, the body, nature or the spectacle, amongst others, and third, to critically revive those considerations that allow us to keep conceiving new ways of being in the world.
· Exhibition: Antoni Tàpies: The Imagination of the World
· Dates: 13.02.2025 – 25.01.2026
· Curators: Imma Prieto, director of the Museu Tàpies, and Pablo Allepuz, curator of the Museu Tàpies collection.
· Museum: Museu Tàpies, Barcelona, Catalonia
· Press Conference: February 12, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.
· Museum: Museu Tàpies, Barcelona, Catalonia
· Press Conference: February 12, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.
· Opening: February 13, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.
[Image: Antoni Tàpies. Paisatge transformat, 1947. Private collection, Barcelona © Comissió Tàpies / VEGAP, 2025]
