Petrificada Petrificante II 1978

Here is a print made by Antoni Tapies; a shifting and emerging image created through a process of trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Tapies, trying to find the balance between control and accident. What was he thinking? The title hints at something turning to stone. The off-white ground feels like a fossilized fragment, and these scribbled forms dance and hover like insects pinned to a surface. That lace-like edge feels like the border of a memory. The black marks are so direct—a primal scream against the delicate and muted ground. It reminds me of Cy Twombly’s graffiti-like gestures and the quiet, almost classical sensibility of Agnes Martin. Artists are in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Like all painting, this work embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.