Series of monotypes, 1974

Monotip V (1974)
Monotype V
Monotype paint on paper
55 x 43 cm

Empremta de māniga (1974)
Sleeve Print
Monotype paint, pencil and ballpoint on paper
77 x 58 cm

With the increase in social protests in Spain at the end of the sixties and the decline of the Franco regime in the first half of the seventies, Tāpies’ political commitment deepened. (...)

Although during the last years of the sixties and the first of the seventies his work revealed a special sensitivity towards the object, he had never ceased to paint or to continue with his graphic work. Naturally, during these years both his painting and his graphic work had to acquire a marked social and political character. The series of monotypes of 1974 refers unequivocally to the political reality of Spain under the Franco dictatorship. These monotypes show images of “walls” upon which desperate graffiti of protest and accusation have been scrawled. The vertical and horizontal lines that divide the composition of some of the monotypes suggest at one and the same time the stones of the wall and the bars of a prison.

Extracts from Manuel J. Borja-Villel, “The Collection”, Fundaciķ Antoni Tāpies (Barcelona: Fundaciķ Antoni Tāpies, 1990)