Antoni Tàpies y Puig, (1923 – 2012) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Using a sombre palette of earthy tones like here, Tàpies produced artworks so dense that they often resembled walls and doors. He then scratched and gouged into them, creating ambiguous markings that suggest an ancient language or code populated with mathematical signs, crosses, sticks, and symbols of Catalan identity, in direct opposition to the dictator Franco. In this etching he has created a  simplistic composition of a classical still life but added the complex, enigmatic figure X all superimposed on a textured background.