Tàpies / Grup de Treball. Clutch and Transmission

Conversation between Antoni Mercader and Patricia Sorroche as part of the series Tàpies: Art and Territory, held on the centenary of the birth of artist Antoni Tàpies.

The purpose of this talk is to consider the significance and repercussions of the events that followed the publication of Antoni Tàpies’ article “Art conceptual aquí” (Conceptual Art Here) in La Vanguardia in 1973, and the subsequent “Document resposta a Tàpies” (Document in Response to Tàpies) that appeared in the magazine Nueva Lente that same year, signed by conceptual artists and by members of the Grup de Treball. The talk also explores what those events still mean and represent today.

One might question whether this was simply a moot point between two ways of understanding artistic practice, or whether it actually represented a paradigm shift. How did art shift from the consolidated and prestigious practice of painting to new artistic approaches and their acceptance? What socioeconomic and artistic parameters led to their coupling to the Catalan art continuum?