Antoni Tàpies Route

Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) was born in Barcelona on 13th December 1923. The family home was on Carrer Canuda. From the age of 11, Antoni Tàpies lived in the district of Sant Gervasi where he had some of his life's formative experiences. As a child he would go out walking with his parents and siblings, his friends who shared the same artistic interests, and, years later, with his wife Teresa Barba and their three children.

Although he had started out studying law at Barcelona University, his love of drawing and painting led him to abandon his legal career to devote himself to the passion that would make him one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

In 1963, Tàpies and his family moved to a house and studio on Carrer Saragossa designed by the architect Coderch. He lived and worked here, producing paintings and sculptures that have left their mark on the world of art.

In 1981, Barcelona City Council commissioned Tàpies to create a monument to Pablo Picasso as part of the events commemorating the centenary of the Malaga-born artist's birth. The resulting work, Homage to Picasso, which stands on Passeig de Picasso, was unveiled in March 1983.

Antoni Tàpies set up the Fundació Antoni Tàpies(now the Tàpies Museum) in 1984 with the aim of promoting the study and knowledge of contemporary art. It is housed in the former headquarters of the publishing house Montaner i Simón, which was designed by the modernista architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and has one of the most complete public collections of Tàpies' work. One of his most important sculptures, Cloud and Chair, stands on the roof of the building.

You can see Rinzen (Sudden Awakening), the work Tàpies presented at the Venice Biennale in 1993, at Barcelona's contemporary art museum, the MACBA. It is a plea against war and won the Golden Lion for painting at the biennale.

In 1996, Antoni Tàpies created The reflection room in the basement of the Ciutadella campus of Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University. It brings together a series of the artist's works with the aim of creating an atmosphere that invites visitors to reflect and contemplate.