Fundació Antoni Tàpies

The Fundació Antoni Tàpies was established in 1984 by Antoni Tàpies (1923–2012), one of the most internationally significant Spanish artists of the 20th century, whose thickly textured, materially experimental abstract paintings — often incorporating sand, marble dust, string and found objects directly into the canvas — made him a central figure in the European Art Informel movement and Spain's best-known postwar abstract artist alongside Miró and Dalí.

The foundation occupies the former Editorial Montaner i Simon building, an 1880s publishing house designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner — the same architect behind Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau — making the building itself an early, lesser-known example of his Modernisme work predating his more famous later projects. Tàpies himself crowned the restored building with "Núvol i Cadira" (Cloud and Chair), a large tangled sculpture of wire and metal tubing on the roof, visible from the street and unmistakably signalling the building's contents before you even enter.