From the 1940s, Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923, Barcelona; d. 2012, Barcelona) has developed a strong visual language through a wide range of sources that coalesce into a complex fusion of materials, gestures, and symbols. Co-founder of the magazine Dau al Set in 1948, and influenced by Miró and Klee, he became increasingly interested in iconographic and magical subjects. He gradually began to incorporate geometrical elements and colour studies leading to an interest in matter through the use of heavily textured canvases of great expressive and communicative possibilities. Tàpies achieved international recognition by the mid-1950s. In the 1960s, he began incorporating new iconographic elements (writing, signs, anthropomorphic elements, footprints and references to the Catalan situation), and new technical methods (new surfaces, use of everyday objects and varnish). Tàpies’ pictorial language has continued to develop ever since, resulting in a creative and productive body of work in painting, sculpture, and assemblage, that is admired throughout the world.