Antoni Tàpies, Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003, (2004) p. 25.
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I often told the fanatics of realism that there is no such thing as realism in art: it only exists in the mind of the observer. Art is a symbol, a thing conjuring up reality in our mental image. That is why I don't see any contradiction between abstract and figurative art either.

— Antoni Tàpies on Mental image

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I often told the fanatics of realism that there is no such thing as realism in art: it only exists in the mind of the observer. Art is a symbol, a thing conjuring up reality in our mental image. That is why I don't see any contradiction between abstract and figurative art either." in the context of "Antoni Tàpies, Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003, (2004) p. 25." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Mental image" (Quotes: Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author, S - Z) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Antoni Tàpies

About Antoni Tàpies

Antoni Tàpies (13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Spanish Catalan artist, born in Barcelona, who from 1947 on, started to paint in a surrealistic style. Through 'Arte Povare', under the influence of Eastern calligraphy among other things, he soon developed a spontaneous Abstract Expressionism with its own symbolic language.