Collectable

‘As the erasure of another image, as a manifestation of disagreement, as a sign of negation’

Tàpies at MACBA (2)

collectable

Antoni Tàpies. Dues creus negres. 1973

‘I myself for half a century have persisted in making crosses and crossings an essential part of my work, and I have even adopted the cross as the first letter of my name and almost as an emblem of my work.’ In a text titled Crosses, Exes and Other Contradictions, Antoni Tàpies explained in 1994 the presence of crosses in his work and the transcendence of this symbol in different cultures.

‘Crosses (as exes) appear as the coordinates of space, as an image of the unknown, as the symbol of mystery, as the boundary of a territory, as a mark of sacred places, objects, persons or fragments of the body, as a stimulus to mystical sentiment, as a remembrance of death, and, more concretely, the death of Christ, as the expression of a paradoxical concept, as a mathematical sign, as the erasure of another image, as a manifestation of disagreement, as a sign of negation.’ In Dues creus negres (Two Black Crosses), a painting from 1973 currently on exhibition at MACBA, the presence of two dark crosses on a white background evokes the symbology of this sign so characteristic of Tàpies.