Antoni Tàpies y Puig, (1923 – 2012) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. This work is part of his epoch-making series Als Mestres de Catalunya (To the masters of Catalunya) and evokes a powerful political message. From the early 70s, Tàpies’ oeuvre increasingly pays homage to his Catalan identity following his experience of the Spanish Civil war in 1936, which abruptly ended Catalonian independence. General Franco who ruled over Spain as military dictator was an anathema to Tàpies and his works acted as a protest as well as a manifestation of aesthetic modernity. Directly representing the struggle for Catalonian identity, Als Mestres de Catalunya No. 5 features the colours of the Catalonian national flag: vivid red stripes against a yellow ground whilst the sickle has become a symbol of Catalonia.