The Meaning of Painting: The Everyday Life Spain’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale bore this title to present a comparative look at the painting of Luis Gordillo and Antoni Tàpies. The curators’ approach lent weight to the analysis of painting as language, not from a formal perspective but in terms of its relationship with political and social reality. The themes set forth included the onset of the divide between high and low culture which, in the work of some artists, meant incorporating daily life into painting.
Tomás Llorens described this selection of works in the following text: “The loss of any political initiative by Francoism, which returned to its purest essence of repression from 1968–69 onwards, the rise of workers’ movements, the development of mass organisation and the impact of national problems ushered in unparalleled dynamism in Spain’s political life and quickly burned any options of culture and art which had hitherto materialised. Artistic and cultural practice is inserted into a highly controversial context, whereby the apparatus of ideological reproduction on an aesthetic level becomes one of the main themes of reference. Thus, in this context, painting is assailed by the everyday through the work of L. Gordillo, while some of A. Tàpies’ works, those many deem to be tied to ‘poor art’, set out an attack on the very same everyday.” Quote taken from a document, written by Tomás Llorens for Oriol Bohigas, which compiles the core strands of the exhibition organised for the 1976 Venice Biennale. Oriol Bohigas Archive