Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012)

'Tàpies has abandoned traditional painting in order to create a surface that records, in a variety of ways, the action of elements such as the wind and the rain as well as the artist's intuitive and often spontaneous responses to the material itself. "Like a researcher in his laboratory," Tàpies has explained, "I am the first spectator of the suggestions drawn from the materials. I unleash their expressive possibilities, even if I do not have a very clear idea of what I am going to do. As I go along with my work I formulate my thought, and from this struggle between what I want and the reality of the material - from this tension - is born an equilibrium'
(A. Tàpies, 'I am Catalan', 1971, reproduced in K. Stiles and P. Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, A Sourcebook of artist's writings, Berkeley 1996, p. 55).