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Tàpies’ work from every period, while three or four exhibitions a year highlight
works and installations by other contemporary artists. The foundation also
includes a peerless archive on Tàpies’ work held in the gorgeous
library
on the
upper floor fashioned from the original shelves of the publisher’s warehouse. In
his later years Tàpies himself has concentrated on public art and sculpture;
important
outdoor works in Barcelona
include
Homenatge a Picasso
(
Homage
to Picasso
; 1983), on Passeig de Picasso, outside the gates of the Parc de la Ciuta-
della, while the foundation building is capped by
Núvol i Cadira
(
Cloud and
Chair
; 1990), a tangle of glass, wire and metal.
Museu Egipci de Barcelona
Half a block east of Passeig de Gràcia, the
Museu Egipci de Barcelona
, at
c/de València 284 (Mon–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 10am–2pm; €7;
T
934 880 188,
W
www.museuegipci.com;
o
Passeig de Gràcia), is an exceptional private
collection of artefacts from ancient Egypt, ranging from the earliest kingdoms
to the era of Cleopatra. It was founded by hotelier and antiquity collector Jordi
Clos – whose luxury
Hotel Claris
, a block away, still has its own private
museum for guests – and displays a remarkable gathering of over six hundred
objects, ranging from amulets to sarcophagi.The emphasis is on the shape and
character of Egyptian society, and visitors are given a hugely detailed English-
language guidebook, which enables you to nail down specific periods and
descriptions, case by case, if you so wish. But the real pleasure here is a seren-
dipitous wander, turning up items like a wood-and-leather bed of the First and
Second Dynasties (2920–2649 BC), some examples of cat mummies of the
Late Period (715–332 BC) or a rare figurine of a spoonbill (ibis) representing
an Egyptian god (though archeologists aren’t yet sure which). If you’d like to
know more, an Egyptologist leads
guided tours
every Saturday at 11am
Antoni Tàpies
Born in the city in 1923 (on c/de la Canuda in the Barri Gòtic),
Antoni Tàpies i Puig
left school to study law at the University of Barcelona in 1944, though he left before
completing his degree. Drawn to art from an early age, and largely self-taught (though
he studied briefly at Barcelona’s Academia Valls), he was a founding member (1948)
of the influential Dau al Set (“Die at Seven”), a grouping of seven artists producing
a monthly avant-garde magazine of the same name which ran until 1956. His first
major paintings date from as early as 1945, at which time he was already interested in
collage (using newspaper, cardboard, silver wrapping, string and wire) and engraving
techniques. In the Dau al Set period, after coming into contact with Miró, among
others, he underwent a brief Surrealist phase. However, after a stay in Paris he found
his feet with an
abstract style
that matured in the Fifties, during which time he held
his first major exhibitions, including shows in New York and Europe. His large works
are deceptively simple, though underlying messages and themes are signalled by the
inclusion of everyday objects and symbols on the canvas. Tàpies has also continu-
ally experimented with unusual materials, like oil paint mixed with crushed marble,
or employing sand, clay, cloth or straw in his collages. His work became increasingly
political
during the Sixties and Seventies.
A la memòria de Salvador Puig Antich,
1974 (In Memory of Salvador Puig Antich
, 1974) commemorates a Catalan anarchist
executed by Franco’s regime, while slogans splashed across other works, or the
frequent use of the red bars of the Catalan flag, leave no doubt about his affiliations.
His most recent works are more sombre still, featuring recurring images of earth,
shrouds and bodies, as echoes of civil war and conflict.
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