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Lot Essay
‘I always believed that one could make art out of simple, humble things … Small things can be transcendental. They can change our way of looking at the world. I think it’s important to make art out of almost anything’ (A. Tàpies)
Comprising pieces of cutlery protruding from the pages of a bronze tome, Antoni Tàpies’ Llibre I coberts (Books and cutlery) of 1996 is an enigmatic sculptural assemblage that affirms the artist’s longstanding belief in the metaphysical power of quotidian objects. Within an oeuvre that, since the 1960s, had dedicated itself to exploring the connection between material and spirit, Tàpies’ appropriation of everyday items sought to channel the mystical, unknown forces that he believed underpinned our existence. Founded upon the notion that each object has a history of physical contact, his pieces of cutlery are construed as traces of human presence: unbound by the laws of gravity, they radiate outwards, as if pointing towards an unidentified magnetic plane. Inscribed with mysterious geometric ciphers, the book’s pages appear to offer some kind of ancient incantation, liberating the objects from their earthbound condition. ‘I always believed that one could make art out of simple, humble things’, Tàpies explained; ‘… Small things can be transcendental. They can change our way of looking at the world. I think it’s important to make art out of almost anything’ (A. Tàpies, quoted in conversation with M. Gayford, ‘From earth to eternity’, The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2006, p. 7).
Comprising pieces of cutlery protruding from the pages of a bronze tome, Antoni Tàpies’ Llibre I coberts (Books and cutlery) of 1996 is an enigmatic sculptural assemblage that affirms the artist’s longstanding belief in the metaphysical power of quotidian objects. Within an oeuvre that, since the 1960s, had dedicated itself to exploring the connection between material and spirit, Tàpies’ appropriation of everyday items sought to channel the mystical, unknown forces that he believed underpinned our existence. Founded upon the notion that each object has a history of physical contact, his pieces of cutlery are construed as traces of human presence: unbound by the laws of gravity, they radiate outwards, as if pointing towards an unidentified magnetic plane. Inscribed with mysterious geometric ciphers, the book’s pages appear to offer some kind of ancient incantation, liberating the objects from their earthbound condition. ‘I always believed that one could make art out of simple, humble things’, Tàpies explained; ‘… Small things can be transcendental. They can change our way of looking at the world. I think it’s important to make art out of almost anything’ (A. Tàpies, quoted in conversation with M. Gayford, ‘From earth to eternity’, The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2006, p. 7).