Tàpies: Art and activism

10 july 2024 - 2 february 2025

Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona, 1923-2012) was a creator committed to progressive Catalan nationalist and humanitarian causes of his time. Guided by a firm avant-garde ideology, Tàpies believed that every genuine artistic gesture was organically linked to society’s emancipatory social and political struggles. Art for him was an instrument to combat the retrograde forces that sought to dominate and oppress reality under various guises.

Tàpies’ commitment was reinforced by his social and cultural activism alongside the anti-Franco movements of the 1960s. The Caputxinada or confinement of intellectuals in Montserrat led him to embark on a path of Catalan nationalist struggle and progress that blossomed during the years Spain’s transition towards democracy. It was during this period that he participated in key events of the time, such as the Congress of Catalan Culture and the March for Freedom, or else allied himself with political movements such as the Assembly of Catalonia and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC).

With the return of democracy, Tàpies extended his defence of human rights to various causes in the world – Chile, South Africa, Bosnia – while supporting all those initiatives that helped to shape modern Catalonia in terms of politics, society or culture.  

Photo: Martí Gasull. Antoni Tàpies treballant a l'estudi de Barcelona, 1982
Col·lecció MACBA. Centre d'Estudis i Documentació. Fons Martí Gasull
© Martí Gasull

Awakening of political consciousness

In París, engagé

From 7 November to 11 September

Struggle, culture and socialism

Tàpies and human rights

"Catalunya Endavant"

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