The Spanish artist Antoni Tapies first received worldwide recognition in the 1950s for his "matter" relief-like works composed of dry pigments, sand, marble-dust and paint, which he scraped, incised and pierced. His early paintings have been likened to walls, their graffiti-like scrawls denoting the only means of free expression available under the Franco regime. The artist's later works express less tangible symbols and themes. This volume is the catalogue of an exhibition organized by the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in collaboration with the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris. It presents the essentials of Tapies's art - an original use of texture and materials, coupled with an expression of intense intellectual, political and artistic feeling. The book provides an overview of the artist's life and career, and also includes original translations from the Catalan of four of the artist's principal writings on art.