Barcelona Guide
The Eixample
Fundació Antoni Tàpies
Address: c/Aragó 255
Opening time: Tues– Sun 10am–8pm
Price: €6
Telephone: 934 870 315
Website: www.fundaciotapies.org
Lluís Domènech i Montaner's first important building, the Casa Montaner i Simon, was finished in 1880, as one of the earliest of all modernista projects in Barcelona. Like Gaudí after him, the architect incorporated Moorish-style flourishes into his iron-framed work, which consists of two floors, supported by cast-iron columns and with no dividing walls. The building originally served the publishing firm of Montaner i Simon, but, as the enormous aluminium tubular structure on the roof announces, it was converted in 1990 to house the FundacióAntoni Tàpies.
It's a beautiful building dedicated to all aspects of the life and work of Catalunya's most eminent postwar artist, who was born in the city in 1923. Tàpies' work rather divides opinion. It's not immediately accessible (in the way of, say, Miró) and you're either going to love or hate the gallery. Temporary exhibitions here focus on selections of Tàpies' work from every period, while three or four exhibitions a year highlight works and installations by other contemporary artists. The foundation also includes a peerless archive on Tàpies' work held in the gorgeous library on the upper floor fashioned from the original shelves of the publisher's warehouse. In his later years Tàpies himself has concentrated on public art and sculpture; important outdoor works in Barcelona include Homenatge a Picasso (Homage to Picasso; 1983), on Passeig de Picasso, outside the gates of the Parc de la Ciutadella, while the foundation building is capped by Núvol i Cadira (Cloud and Chair; 1990), a tangle of glass, wire and metal.