"More presence of Tàpies is needed in Barcelona"

The commissioner and researcher Imma Prieto (Vilafranca del Penedès, 1976) has been directing the Fundació Antoni Tàpies for over a year, which was re-established this summer as the Tàpies Museum. Her arrival coincided with the start of the Tàpies Centenary, a commemoration dedicated to celebrating the artist's career, with the highlight being the major retrospective exhibition that can be seen at the headquarters on Aragó Street.

Prieto, previously director of the contemporary art museum Es Baluard in Palma, defends the relevance of the gaze of an artist who defined himself as a realist beyond superficial appearance, in a world where wars continue and mobile phones alienate everyone. "The centenary is a tribute to a past, but, above all, it is an opportunity to open ourselves to the future by asking ourselves questions that interpret the present. Tàpies thought of time in a non-linear way: this past, present, and future as an eternal instant," the expert states.

--- What do we need to know about Tàpies?

--- He is an artist from the second half of the 20th century. This means he is an heir to certain manifestations more anchored in the avant-garde. The clearest inheritance is surrealist, which is already evident in some of the symbols that appear in Dau al set and in how he configures his compositions, especially the earliest ones. Whether it's a self-portrait or something else, he cannot escape the time he had to live in. At the same time, he is also a contemporary of certain informalist tendencies or abstract expression of Italian Arte Povera, where matter has a very important weight, but he makes all of this very much his own. Tàpies created a very personal language and he himself evolved it. But there is a point that is always in his works, which is thinking. And, in fact, he tells us so with one of the texts he writes for Cavall Fort, which, curiously, already indicates his will in more pedagogical matters. He invites us to play, look, and think. Therefore, I understand his entire legacy as something that must be constantly thought about, but that you also have to think about in relation to the world. The objective, not only of the centenary, but of my project, is to think about Tàpies' legacy as an essayistic action and to look at today's world from Tàpies.

--- How can he help us today?

--- In his sociopolitical stance of not shutting up. He paid many tributes to teachers, but he also took a stand against the dictatorship, being present both at the closing of Montserrat and at the Caputxinada. We don't know what he would have said or done today about peace and war, but we do know that he would have said or done something. For him, there were no individuals without society. It's curious that this relationship between art and community was already being considered. He was an active person and we can learn from all of this, even more so today when we are increasingly sleepy citizens, like zombies, a mass of people who no longer go to the factory but to screens. There are many issues from which we can learn from Tàpies, even on a formal level, if we analyze many of his early works and think about how he was one of the first to reuse objects and rethink the uses of materials. Today we call it recycling and he was a pioneer.

--- Do you think Barcelona appreciates his figure enough?

--- He is blurred, but the city wants Tàpies. A centenary always helps, it's a time to commemorate and he is recognized. But I do believe that there is a lack of Tàpies' presence in Barcelona's public space. Furthermore, Tàpies needs to be studied again. Some master's students came to visit us and, to the question, "What do you know about Tàpies? Have you worked on him?", they said no. If he is not in the curricula, it is clear that he falls into oblivion. This is worrying, Tàpies must be reincorporated into the content and be at the center of debates.

"Tàpies needs to be studied again. If he is not in the curricula, it is clear that he falls into oblivion"

--- It starts in university because, precisely, where I studied, at the University of Girona (UdG), there is the Chair of Contemporary Art and Culture, where a lot of work is done on Tàpies and it is still directed today by María-Josep Balzac, a collaborator of the Tàpies Museum. Seminars and events were held between the two entities, and Tàpies himself had even visited us. That said, I approach his art as a researcher; I never knew him personally. I am the first director of the Tàpies Museum who has not known him, I suppose also due to age. My relationship is, without a doubt, initially one of admiration.

--- Why?

--- For being very clear that he is one of the great artists, one of those who has many more things to say and that you never finish with him. I remember spending hours just looking at one of his works. When you start in the world of contemporary art, the first thing you learn is that you can never know everything, even though the more you see, the more instantaneous the dialogue will be. Furthermore, I would say it's not a rational thing; it's more instinctive. It's like everything, for example, with music, you have to train your ear to listen to certain things. There is a type of knowledge that comes through looking, and the brain activates faster the more you have seen. That's why it's still tiring to have to respond to the typical comment of "Oh, abstract art is not understood."

--- But it is difficult, it is.

--- It's clear, but, it's what I'm telling you, do you expect to understand the latest law in quantum physics right off the bat? Well, I don't think so. How does the universe work? How does the inside of an atom work? We need information and the same thing happens with art. Why do we ask less of art? Sometimes, with art, we think that what we understand a little is because we identify the figure, especially with figurative art. No, not necessarily. It's like, if you understand a poem because you understand the words. A poem always goes further. We have this very clear. It's like a good novel. It's not just the literal meaning of the words that gives you the hidden meanings behind them. What gives it to you is a background, a way of understanding spaces, contexts, characters, from which you create new images. And art also generates new images in your head, images of reality, images about yourself. That's why art is a window. I don't know what the definition of art is and I won't do in a minute what hasn't been done yet today, but if it represents anything, it's a window into someone's thought and their vision of the world.

--- Is there anything left to discover about Tàpies?

--- Understanding him, he is already understood. Knowing everything is another matter. Each era will say new things because what changes is the gaze of the beholder. Hence the validity of his works. It's like Goya or Picasso. Now I think a lot about Goya's engravings and, unfortunately, they are not at all far from the barbarity that is happening in Gaza.