Antoni Tàpies (December 13, 1923 – February 6,  2012) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist who became known as one of Spain’s most renowned artists in the second half of the 20th century. Tàpies started as a surrealist painter; his early works were influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró. He became an informal artist, working in a style known as pintura matèrica, in which non-artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. In 1953 he began working in mixed media, his most original contribution to art. Tàpies’ international reputation was well established by the end of the 1950s. (His work of the early 1970s is marked by symbols of Catalan identity.) Examples of his work are found in numerous major international collections.