Antoni Clavé

Antoni Clavé trained in Barcelona at the School of Fine Arts under Àngel Ferrant and Josep Mongrell, and during these years came into contact with artists such as Grau Sala and Eudald Serra. He began his career as a draughtsman for children’s magazines and, from 1932, worked for Cinaes —Cinematográfica Nacional Española—, producing film posters for the façades of Barcelona’s Catalunya, Capitol and Fèmina cinemas. He also designed advertising posters, experimenting with materials such as rope, printed fabrics, corrugated cardboard, newspaper and other elements incorporated through collage. After serving on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, Clavé went into exile in France in January 1939. He was held first at Prats de Molló and later at the Les Haras internment camp in Perpignan. Released shortly afterwards, he held his first solo exhibition in the city, presenting drawings, gouaches and portraits made during his internment. He arrived in Paris on 5 April 1939. In April 1940 he exhibited at the Au Sans Pareil bookshop and, in 1941, established his first studio at 45 rue Boissonade in Montparnasse. During his early years in Paris, he worked as an illustrator for various publications and received commissions for fine press editions. The influence of Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard led his painting towards a more intimate and introspective phase. Clavé gradually became integrated into the artistic circles of the so-called École espagnole de Paris. In 1944 Pablo Picasso visited his exhibition at the Galerie Henri Joly, an encounter that marked the beginning of a lasting friendship between the two artists. In 1946 Clavé exhibited at the Galerie Delpierre in Paris. At the same time, he developed an extensive career as a stage and costume designer for ballet and theatre. His illustrations for literary works, particularly Rabelais’s Gargantua, introduced him to medieval iconography and inspired his celebrated series of kings, warriors, queens and knights. In 1954 he abandoned theatre design to devote himself fully to painting. His work subsequently evolved from still lifes and urban landscapes towards the progressive fragmentation of the figure and an increasingly abstract visual language. His interest in materials became one of the defining features of his mature work. Clavé incorporated paper, fabrics, found objects, imprints and reliefs, experimenting with collage, assemblage, sculpture, tapestry and printmaking. In 1957 he produced his first tapestry paintings and, during the following decade, developed his tapestry assemblages. In 1965 he settled in the South of France, near Saint-Tropez, where he continued to explore the expressive possibilities of matter, texture and colour. His international reputation was confirmed by distinctions including the Hallmark Prize in New York in 1948; the David Bright Prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale; the UNESCO Prize for Engraving at the 1956 Venice Biennale; the Matarazzo Prize at the 4th São Paulo Biennial in 1957; and the Kamakura Prize at the 1958 Tokyo Print Biennial. In 1984, the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was devoted entirely to his work, bringing together 125 paintings, sculptures, maquettes and theatre costume designs. Antoni Clavé is regarded as one of the most internationally recognised Catalan artists of the twentieth century.