Tàpies began his artistic trials during a long convalescence from a serious illness. An increasing dedication to drawing and painting pushed him to abandon university studies. In the 1940s, he started exhibiting his works with a distinct personality, which highlighted him in the artistic panorama of the moment. He is co-founder of the magazine Dau al Set (1948). Influenced by Miró and Klee, he increased the iconographic factor and the magical theme in his art. Little by little, he started to incorporate geometrizing elements and color studies that lead him to an interest in the material, which translated into his use of fabrics with an intense texture and great expressive and communicative possibilities.
With these works, towards the middle of the fifties, Tàpies achieved international recognition. Starting in the sixties, he incorporated new iconographic elements (writing signs, anthropomorphic elements, footprints, and signs that allude to the reality of Catalonia) and technical procedures (new surfaces, use of everyday objects, and, varnish). The pictorial language of Tàpies has evolved since then and has resulted in a diversified and productive artistic creation admired around the world.
He has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and at the Serpentine Gallery in London, at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and at the Jeu de Paume and at the Center Pompidou in Paris, at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, at the Institut Valencià d ‘Art Modern in Valencia and at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, ​​among many others.
Parallel to his artistic activity, Antoni Tàpies has developed work as a writer with various publications: La practica de l’art (The practice of art, 1970), L’art contra l’estètica (Art against aesthetics , 1974), Memòria personal (Personal memory, 1977), La realitat com a art (Reality as art, 1982), Per un art modern i progressista (For a modern and progressive art, 1985), Valor de l’art ( Valor del arte, 1993) and L’art i els seus llocs (Art and its places, 1999).
Antoni Tàpies created the Fundación Antoni Tàpies in 1984 with the aim of promoting the study and knowledge of contemporary art, paying special attention to the analysis of its role in shaping the consciousness of modern man.

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