The structure of the building and exhibition spaces bear this out tendency. On entering the Fundació, we immediately descend one storey into a main hall, passing a series of paintings and sculptures from the previous two decades, many new to the museum (such as the stirring 'Llistat', 2008). Yet we are invited to commence our voyage with a further downward movement into the basement. This space, a type of artistic unconscious, groups together a stunning array of items from Tàpies’s personal collection under the title 'En primer lloc' ('In the first place').
Never before seen at the Fundació, the exhibition includes a Japanese tengu from the 12th century, canvases by Klee, Mexican preclassical terracotta figures from 500 BCE and a mid-19th century Zande Harp from the Congo. On our way back up, our view of Tàpies’s works is reconfigured by our encounter with these objects. The effect is repeated when, up on the first floor (home to early delights such as 'Autoretrat', 'Figura sobre fusta cremada' and 'Dues figures', all from 1947), we gaze down through the large opening, taking in the previously-glimpsed pieces from the main hall. This constant movement through, and reinterpretation of, space and objects are firmly in line with the artist’s philosophy.
The building's renovation works were carried out by Ábalos + Sentkiewicz Arquitectos, with detailed dossiers of the architects’ proposals found in a temporary exhibition on the second floor. The first aim of the project, improving fire safety and disabled access, hardly sets the pulses racing. The most notable superficial change, meanwhile, is a paint job: the re-coating in white of the trellis-style mezzanine and several pillars and walls, that were previously a deep brown and had in some cases seemed to overshadow the works themselves.
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