Antoni Tapies

Grey and Green Painting

1957

© Foundation Antoni Tapies, Barcelona/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2020

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Artist: Antoni Tapies 1923–2012
Original title: Peinture grise et verte
Medium: Oil paint, epoxy resin and marble dust on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1140 × 1613 mm
frame: 1183 × 1665 × 48 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1962
Reference: T00471

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Tàpies developed a style that involved covering his canvases with a thick, highly textured base and incorporating into it materials such as clay and marble dust. To this, he added incised and scribbled lines, various lacerations and graffiti-like marks. He was fascinated by the contrast of different materials. He later wrote: 'My pictures became the truly experimental fields of battle... destruction led up to aesthetic tranquility.'

Gallery label, November 2005

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Catalogue entry

Antoni Tàpies born 1923

T00471 Peinture grise et verte (Grey and Green Painting) 1957

Inscribed 'tàpies | - 1957' on back of canvas
Oil, latex and marble dust on canvas, 44 7/8 x 63 1/2 (114 x 161.5)
Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1962
Prov: With Galerie Stadler, Paris (purchased from the artist); with Arthur Tooth and Sons, London; E.J. Power, London; with Marlborough Fine Art, London; Friends of the Tate Gallery
Exh: Matter Painting, ICA, London, September 1960 (16); Contemporary Spanish Painting and Sculpture, Marlborough Fine Art, London, January 1962 (40) as 'Peinture verte et noire'; XXXII Biennale, Venice, June-October 1964 (Room XII, 13 repr.)
Repr: L'Oeil, No.51, March 1959, p.11 (wrongly entitled 'Azul sobre marron' and wrongly dated 1956); John Rothenstein, The Tate Gallery (London 1966), p.262

The artist confirms that the correct title of this work is 'Peinture grise et verte'. It has sometimes been given as 'Peinture grise et verte XXXVII', but the Roman numerals are the Galerie Stadler record number and do not form part of the title.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.715, reproduced p.715