Antoni Tàpies & Cy Twombly

Als mestres de Catalunya, 1974, Antoni Tàpies.

Whilst watching the Film back with Kim(Tutor) mentioned the artist Antoni Tàpies in relation to my painting ideas. I can see a relationship between my work and Tàpies regarding tone. I particularly thoroughly enjoy his use of texture and the way he creates surfaces to work on. When using diluted printing inks I have come to enjoy the brooding atmosphere they create, this being something I can relate to in the work of Tàpies. He would often use sand and other materials mixed into paint to generate further texture to his work which is something I feel I need to exlplore further.

http://www.fundaciotapies.org/site/spip.php?rubrique73

When researching Tapies, I found another artist, Cy Twombly, of the same generation who I feel I can engage with. His paintings emit a lively aurora of frustration and vigour I find captivating. The rapid flow of line movement almost remind me of the work of Len Lye and his scratch film, thinking of the frames layered, this is how they could be considered in a painterly format. Comparing his work to Tàpies, Twombly's is more active and there is more to extract from the work, however I am currently concerned with the texture of surfaces making the work of Tàpies more suitable.  Exploring the work of Twombly gives a pathway of observation into the freedom of mark-making and has developed my observation of line and mark-making.

'Every line is thus the actual experience with its unique story. It does not illustrate it; it is the perception of its own realisation.' [p.285]

Gualdoni.F (2008). ART The Twentieth Century. Skira. ISBN: 978-88-6130-801-5

Reading this inspired me to think further about the history of a painting and how it can be tracked through the observation of layers and depth of line. This taught me to look further into a paint beyond they key focal points to appreciate the method and process of the work. Through Twombly's work particularly, it demonstrates how painting can be a documentation of time and emotion, as each line has an momentary experience attached to its production.



Untitled, 1972



Tiznit, 1953





After using the roller with acrylic paint I then decided to experiment using it with the printing inks. As the texture of the medium is very different, the effect therefore changed. It required a great amount of turpentine to aid the movement of paint, and required more pressure than when rolling acrylic paint. I based these studies on my images of rocks, and reduced them to simple layers of colour in order to loose detail. Using the roller with printing inks produces the appearance of a softer surface which I find effective, although can make clotted areas if not enough turpentine is applied, for this reason the use of a roller may be better to only use with acrylic paint, this way there is a gradual fade of tones.