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signed, titled and dated 1950 on the reverse oil on canvas 54.6 by 64.8cm. 21I by 25Iin. Provenance Martha Jackson Gallery, New York Anderson Gallery, Buffalo Literature: Anna Agusti, Antoni Tapies: The Complete Works, Vol. 1, 1943-1960, Barcelona 1988, p. 129, no. 263, illustrated (and incorrectly catalogued) The creation of the Catalan literary and artistic review, Dau al Set in 1948 provided the scenario for the surrealist period of Tapies early work. His paintings and drawings at this time are charged with a sense of magic and irony so beautifully reflected in Tela de Arana of 1950. Relating to the magic surrealism in the 1930's works of Joan Miro (who Tapies first met in 1948), Paul Klee and Max Ernst, Tapies, in close collaboration with his friend, the poet and dramatist Joan Brossa, created images from the subconscious and dream world. These visions served to liberate his personal inner expression and to symbolize artistic freedom in opposition to the repression suffered in Barcelona during and after the Spanish Civil War (the Catalan language itself was prohibited at this time). Tapies and Brossa shared a special fascination for the world of theatre and magic, so much so that Brossa himself became an adept magician. Both admired the famous turn-of-the-century illusionist Fregoli who had been capable of performing several roles at one time with his ability for quick-change. This world of illusion, of sudden appearances and disappearances, is the subject of Tela de Arana. The iridescent light and transparent colours, create a mysterious, almost demonic, space in which the magician weaves his art, manipulating a string from which a figure appears and may, we feel, be made to disappear. He is like the spider, hidden near the base of the horn, who has left this web, that most magical phenomenon of nature, like a cosmic curtain. The magician's top hat, symbol of ideas and container of the occult, hangs over a strange black aperture containing a phosphorescent red mass, the hidden source of transformation. The artist, like the magician, reveals the occult and creates belief from the invisible made visible. Tapies has said what is applicable to all of his art, even his later matter painting, ''I want to be in touch with a reality which lies beneath the surface of things'' (Barbara Catoir, Conversations with Antoni Tapies, Munich 1991, p. 95).