ANTONI TÀPIES | Oval de Vernís

Pace Wildenstein, New York
Private Collection, United States
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Anna Agustí, Tàpies: The Complete Works: Volume 8: 1998 - 2004, Barcelona 2005, p. 86, no. 7186, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the yellow is richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals a few minute specks of loss to the extreme edges, notably one along the bottom edge, 52 cm from the lower right corner. All other surface irregularities are in keeping with the artist's working process and choice of media, and appear to be stable. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Oval de Vernís is a sublime work realised at a time when Antoni Tàpies had been firmly established as one of the preeminent artists of his generation through an oeuvre that celebrates memory captured in matter. Its textured composition renders the present work emblematic of the artist’s otherworldly pictorial language whilst it is at the same time a primary example of his idiosyncratic use of material. Incorporating elements like dust, sand and pigments in his art allowed Tàpies to reproduce and thereby capture reality. Impressions from the civil war in Spain would lastingly inform his painterly practice. Walls, which are the primal carrier of memory to Tàpies were particularly charged through the cruelty and suffocation that they witnessed taking place on the streets of the country. Exposed to the bareness and nakedness of the human condition through his deeply personal and traumatising experience of an adolescence surrounded by violence, Tàpies would develop an individualist artistic approach that whilst informed by Art Informel and related to Abstract Expressionism would ultimately defy categorisation through its sober profundity.

Oval de Vernís is an atmospheric variant of the Matter Paintings rendered in grey and yellow. Three decontextualised crosses vertically aligned intersect the washed yellow plain that is enveloped by a somber and seemingly diaphanous grey. Characteristic of Tàpies, there is no legend to access the mystics of the work or an invitation to comprehend its symbolism and the viewer is left to explore the beguiling texture of the work. Oval de Vernís captivates the viewer’s gaze primarily thanks to the mesmerising roundness resulting from the colour choice enacted on the impasto, whilst the glossy veneer of the varnish creates a fetishistic surface that immediately entrances and attracts. The deliberate decision to execute a painting freed from associational implication results from Tàpies’ quest for truth and his high expectation towards the viewer: “A picture… is a door that leads to another door... The truth we seek will never be found in a picture: it will only appear behind the last door that the viewer succeeds in opening by his own efforts” (Antoni Tàpies cited in: Exh. Cat., New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Tàpies, 1995, p. 36).