The wall is a recurring motif in Tàpies's work and he has related it to the high walls of the dark, narrow streets of his native Barcelona and Catalonia. He remarked: "The image of the wall can contain countless suggestions. Separation, claustrophobia; wailing walls, prison walls; rejection of the world, contemplation, destruction of passion, silence, death..." Most of Tàpies's paintings are black or grey and he even prefered to paint in closed rooms with all daylight blocked out. At the time this piece was painted, it would have formed a sharp contrast to the bright colours used in contemporary Pop Art.