Repliquer II 1981

Antoni Tàpies made "Repliquer II" with a kind of earthy simplicity that feels really direct. He’s got this way of layering color, that gives the surface of the print a tactile quality. You can almost feel the grit of the pigment. The browns and tans are so grounded, and then he hits you with these sharp black marks, punctuating the surface. Those repeated tadpole shapes floating at the top, feel like an alphabet, or an unfinished thought. They're like notations, or fleeting images. There's something about how Tàpies handles the material that reminds me of Twombly, a similar sense of excavation and raw expression, each mark carrying weight.