Antoni Tápies

From the month of October and until January 19, 2014, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao presents Antoni Tàpies. From Object to Sculpture (1964-2009), a retrospective exhibition that expands five decades in the artist's production and showcases an enormous variety of techniques and materials.

Curated by Álvaro Rodríguez-Fominaya, the exhibition offers viewers a walk through exhibition rooms that display walls, doors, chairs, armoires, dishes, books, baskets and bathtubs—arranged according to a basic and austere montage—that alludes to atmospheres created by the works of an artist who masterfully transforms everyday objects into pieces that pull us to a mystical dimension that connects reason and intuition, symbolism and mystery to the ludic nature of the work.

The exhibition consists of objects and assemblages created during the 1960s and 1970s—a period in which Tàpies developed his first autonomous and clearly three-dimensional objects—and his most recent bronze sculptures, including the sculpture Trill (2009) created by the artist just before he died. The exhibition also displays collages like Rotllo de Tela Metàl•lica Amb Drap Vermell (1970) and Maqueta per a "Núvol i Cadira" (1988), in which he used wire and metallic mesh to define the space and to offer a compelling contrast with other elements of an organic nature.