Equation III 1987

Editor: So, this is Antoni Tapies' "Equation III" from 1987, a mixed-media piece incorporating charcoal and stenciling. It strikes me as intensely raw, like an echo of something profound but obscured. What secrets do you think it's holding? Curator: Ah, secrets! Yes, Tapies was always one for whispering rather than shouting, wasn’t he? I see a struggle for form, a sort of… palimpsest of ideas. Look at how the charcoal seems both applied and eroded, almost like a ruin or the imprint of a forgotten ritual. The equation, if there is one, seems less mathematical and more… existential. Don’t you think? What sort of ‘equation’ do you suppose he’s wrestling with? Editor: An existential one, definitely. Maybe life and death, or chaos and order. That stenciled shape—is that meant to be a face? It's almost skull-like, but also cartoonish. Curator: Good eye! The suggestion is there, isn’t it? That duality is classic Tapies. He's using those recognizable shapes as anchors in a sea of abstraction. Think of him rummaging through the detritus of the everyday to find the sacred. The roughness, that near-violent application of material, it's all part of excavating something primal. A real “feral” gesture, perhaps. Editor: I hadn’t considered the ‘feral’ aspect, but that makes sense. It's like he's intentionally resisting perfection or clarity. Is it trying to unsettle us? Curator: Unsettle? Perhaps provoke is more accurate. He presents a feeling. And whether that’s successful or not relies on the individual viewer; an entirely new ‘equation’, wouldn’t you say? Editor: Absolutely. It definitely provides more questions than answers. Curator: Exactly! And isn’t that the mark of art that truly sticks with you?