Fundació Antoni Tàpies

Lonely Planet review

This Domènech i Montaner building - considered by many to be the prototype for Modernisme, and the first in the city to be built on an iron frame - houses the experimental work of Catalonia's greatest living artist, Antoni Tàpies, as well as exhibitions by other contemporary artists. The building is crowned with coiled wire, a curious Tàpies sculpture titled Núvol i Cadira (Cloud and Chair).

Tàpies saw fit to crown the building with the meanderings of his own mind - to some it looks like a pile of coiled barbed wire, to others…well it's difficult to say.Antoni Tàpies, whose experimental art has often carried (not always easily decipherable) political messages - he opposed Francoism in the 1960s and 1970s - launched the Fundació in 1984 to promote contemporary art, donating a large part of his own work. The core collection spans the whole arc of Tàpies' creations, and also includes some contributions from other contemporary artists. The Fundació houses an important research library devoted principally to Tàpies, but again embracing a wider range of contemporary art.