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Created by the Catalan painter
Antoni Tàpies, so as to promote the studio and knowledge and with the intent of developing the modern art in the city. With this objective, the Foundation, which carries the name of this artist, opened the museum in June 1990 in the old Montaner y Simon Editorial, work of the Modernist architect
Lluís Domènech i Montaner, restored and equipped by the architects
Roser Amadó y
Lluís Domènech i Girbau.
This building, built between 1880 and 1885, in an early Catalan Modernist phase, was the first Barcelonan Ensanche that integrates in the scheme of the urban centre typology and the industrial technology combining metal and brick seen.
From a plural perspective and interdisciplinary, the Antoni Tàpies Foundation establishes collaboration between specialists from different areas from the know to contribute to a better understanding of contemporary art and culture. For this reason, the Foundation combines the organisation of temporary expositions, symposium, conferences and cycles of cinema with the addition of diverse publications that accompanies the activities and with samples of newspapers dedicated to Antoni Tàpies. In this sense, the Foundation possesses one of the most complete collections of art from this artist, constituting in the majority from the donations of Antoni and
Teresa Tàpies.
The library conserves its original shelves and specialises in modern and contemporary art. It also has the most extensive works of Tàpes and art collections and Asian cultures and the arts called ´primitive´, Africans and Oceanic, that so much importance has been placed in the evolution of 20th Century. Other topics like architecture, design, decorative arts, photography, cinema or video are also present. The initial core of donations of
Antoni Tàpies has increased with recent and historic publications, and also international videos and magazines, that complete a biography collection in constant growth.