L'Enveloppe 1968

Antoni Tapies made this painting, L'Enveloppe, with a muddy palette of blacks and grays over a beige ground, bisected with dark lines that form an X. I imagine Tapies circling this canvas, building up layers, like a construction site. Paint is scrubbed in, scraped off. Splatters and marks are applied with speed and intuition. There’s an energy to the gesture, a raw, almost brutal quality that gives it real presence. I think of Twombly’s mark-making, but messier, earthier. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about an attitude, a way of confronting the canvas. The central X and the title makes me wonder if Tapies was responding to the idea of hiding or obscuring some hidden message. Painting doesn't exist in a vacuum. Artists riff off one another, building on the past, pushing into the future. When we look at art we're tapping into an ongoing conversation. Painting is always an experiment, always becoming.