Antoni Tapies’s “Porta roja,” 1995.

The amazing aspect to “Tàpies: From Within” is the scope of the Catelan painter’s work. This survey of Antoni Tàpies’ 70-year long career, which started in the 1940s and ended with his death in 2012, just opened at the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). In other words, he put his imprint on every decade in the second part of the 20th century – and then some.

These are, for the most part, large-scale works, with some sculpture, many of which have rarely been exhibited; they have been culled from the artist’s private collection and from the Fundacio Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, so they held a special place in the painter’s heart and kept them close and off the market. The exhibit is curated by former Tate Director Vincente Todoli – with input from PAMM’s chief curator Tobias Ostrander. The retrospective, with 50 pieces, will make only this Miami stop in the United States.

“Green-Blue Straw,” 1968.

Several of the works that make the biggest impression are early ones – abstract and involving little color. In fact, some are made from dirt, straw and crushed marble, giving them both a matte, earthy quality with some sparkle – you have to look closely to see all that is going on. They are brown and gray and don’t initially want to dazzle you, but they are grand.

Later his works move more toward collage, but still using basic and non-dramatic materials, such as wood, some of which resemble simple doors or windows. Several of these pieces include old, dirty white work shirts that the artist wore, and footprints. One collaged piece includes napkins, folded specifically for each family member so they knew which one was theirs.

The mark making starts to become the universal thread to his works. And indeed, says Ostrander, the element of humbleness and humility undergirds all his art. Unlike the art being made in the United Sates post World War II, filled with exuberance and pop culture, Tàpies lived in a world recovering from the Spanish Civil War and the destruction of a continent, then under the harsh yoke of Franco’s fascist dictatorship – humbling stuff, to say the least. The title of the show, “From Within,” not only references the fact that much of it came from his own private collection, but that the artwork also came from within him, the unadorned expressions of his observations.

“Tàpies: From Within” runs through May 3 at PAMM, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; www.pamm.org.