Antoni Tapies: The "matter paintings". (Volumes I and II).
Item
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Title
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Antoni Tapies: The "matter paintings". (Volumes I and II).
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Identifier
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AAI9000677
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identifier
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9000677
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Creator
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Borja, Manuel Jose.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Robert Pincus-Witten
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Fine Arts
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Abstract
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The importance of Antoni Tapies as a key figure, both in the Spanish and European art world from the postwar period to the present, has been widely noted in all the pertinent literature. The historical significance of his art has almost totally been identified with the matter paintings, the type of work which projected him into preeminence in European avant-garde circles during the late fifties and early sixties. The matter paintings became symbolic of a period and an artistic attitude; and in consequence, Tapies' art was no longer perceived exclusively in artistic terms, but was transformed into a model to be followed or attacked.;Given this model-like role, the interpretations of the matter paintings have varied periodically according to changes of taste and historical events in Spain as in Europe. If, during the late fifties, the matter paintings had an Existentialist character, they were perceived during the seventies as works of social protest.;Although interpretations of Tapies' art have, for the most part, had a contextual value, art historians have subscribed to such readings and accepted them without questioning their origins and functions in specific historic situations. Ironically, throughout the popular and widely-read literature on Tapies the position of the art historian has been un-historical.;Therefore, there has not been any attempt to study the linguistic origins of the matter paintings: that is, to understand Tapies' position in relation to artistic languages in existence when he came to terms with the matter paintings. On the contrary, through one of those ironies so characteristic in art history, earlier periods of the artist's work have been understood in terms specific to the matter paintings, and considered important not because of what the matter paintings reveal of the previous works, but because of what these previous works reveal of the matter paintings.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
