Arte e spiritualità. Omaggio a Antoni Tàpies

To mark the centenary of the birth of Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona 1923-2012), the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Fundació Tàpies in Barcelona organised a conference entitled ‘Art and Spirituality’. This is the same title as the lecture that Tàpies gave at the UPF when he was awarded an honorary degree in 1988. It is with that lecture that we open the issue of Engramma that we present here, which bears the same title as this monograph dedicated to the Catalan artist. The issue contains contributions by Juan Eduardo Cirlot, Giulio Carlo Argan, Salvador Dalí - published in the years between 1955 and 1962 when Tàpies introduced Informal Art in Barcelona. We also publish some of the papers given at the 2012 conference: Emily Braun, Alfonso Alegre Heitzmann, Javier Melloni, Martine Heredia, Jordi Garcés). In addition, other significant contributions by Giorgio Pasqualotto, Daniel Esparza, Eduard Cairol, Enrique Granell, Juan José Lahuerta and Lourdes Cirlot. A section of the issue is reserved for the Sala de Reflexió at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, conceived by Tàpies as a space for meditation (as stated in the text by Tàpies himself that we republish here). The images of the Sala Tàpies that we publish in this issue are accompanied by texts by Jordi Garcés and Javier Melloni. Finally, two contributions by the Catalan artist Perejaume, who installed his work Fer voltejar una creu in the Sala de Reflexió during the 2012 conference. As a "Homage to Antoni Tàpies" we publish here the verses that Jean-Luc Nancy dedicated to Antoni Tàpies in his contribution to the conference at the Tàpies Foundation in 2012.