In 1943 Tàpies began studying for a law degree at the University of Barcelona, but he abandoned this career in 1946 to devote himself to painting. Largely self-taught as an artist, he helped to found (1948) in Barcelona the Dau al Set (“Seven-sided Die”), an organization of Surrealist artists and writers influenced especially by Paul Klee and Joan Miró, which published an artistic-literary review. In 1950 he saw the work of Jean Dubuffet, which turned him away from Surrealism toward abstraction. Discarding the Surrealist imagery of his Dau al Set period, he began in 1955 to work with a thick impasto. These “matter” paintings, similar in their power and individuality to American Abstract Expressionist paintings, secured his world reputation. In his later works Tàpies began incorporating real objects, such as buckets, mirrors, and silk stockings, in his paintings, and even larger objects as in his assemblage “Desk with Straw,” in which an actual desk serves as the “canvas.” His works of lithography were noted for their cryptic, spontaneous effects. He also collaborated with poet Joan Brossa on a number of illustrated books.

In 1990 the Tàpies Foundation, which houses some 2,000 works by the artist, opened in Barcelona.