Tàpies, Portabella: Politics of Friendship

El Museu Tàpies joins the programme for the centenary of the birth of Pere Portabella, curated by Jordi Balló, with the project entitled Tàpies, Portabella: Politics of Friendship. This project takes as its starting point the personal and professional relationship between the two creative talents, lasting from their youth in the early years of the Franco dictatorship up to the death of Antoni Tàpies in 2012, and beyond.

The case of Tàpies and Portabella, used here as the core of a wider network of artistic figures, provides a model of the construction of political communities based not only on affinities, but also—or above all—on the transformational power of criticism and disagreement. Based on a recognition of heterogeneity and difference as structural principles, the project will explore forms, both historical and current, of alliances between art and politics, transiting through a range of languages.

This is a project by the Institute of Critical Drifts, a platform for contemporary thought that creates research projects, seminars and publications with the aim of generating dialogues between Tàpies’ legacy and today’s trends in critical theory, political philosophy and material aesthetics. For this project, Tània Balló will be joining the permanent members of the group: Xavier Bassas, Manuel Borja-Villel, Daniel García Andújar, Mabel Tapia and, for the Museu Tàpies, Imma Prieto, Pablo Allepuz, Pau Dito, Maria Sellarès and Patricia Sorroche.

Antoni Tàpies. Gris, 1955. Private Collection, Barcelona © Comissió Tàpies / VEGAP, 2026.