Antoni Clavé

ANTONI CLAVÉ (Barcelona, 1913 – Saint-Tropez, 2005).
“Pasteque noire,” 1955.
Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas.
Accompanied by a certificate issued by Joan Gaspar, Sala Gaspar (Barcelona).
Bears a label on the reverse from Sala Gaspar (Barcelona).
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse.
Measurements: 60 x 73 cm; 77 x 88 cm (frame).
The watermelon was a recurring motif in Clavé’s work in the early 1950s. The artist incorporated it into his still lifes and compositions featuring figures, exploring the contrast between the fruit’s vivid red and the gray, muted tones of the figures. A notable example is *Trois personnages aux pastèques* (1951), a work in which he combines an everyday scene with a still life, using watermelons as accents of color within the composition. This interest in the motif allows us to place *Pastèque noire* within a line of exploration present in his work from those years, although here the reference to the fruit seems to take on a darker and more schematic form.Created in 1955, the work reflects a moment of evolution in Clavé’s artistic language, when his representation became progressively freer and the painterly medium took center stage. The combination of mixed media, gestural brushwork, and chromatic hallmarks distances the composition from a literal depiction of the object and transforms it into an expressive image, situated between figuration and abstraction.
The certificate accompanying the piece is also significant. The Sala Gaspar maintained a close relationship with Clavé and organized exhibitions of his work in Barcelona; its archive documents an exhibition by the artist in 1955 and his first painting exhibition at the gallery in 1956.
Antoni Clavé trained at the Llotja in Barcelona and, after settling in France in 1939, developed a career with broad international reach. In 1954, he abandoned set design for good to focus on painting; he received the UNESCO Prize for Printmaking at the 1956 Venice Biennale and the Matarazzo Prize for Painting at the São Paulo Biennial, and in 1958 he held a major exhibition at the Galerie Creuzevault in Paris. His institutional recognition culminated in major retrospective exhibitions in Paris in 1978 and in a comprehensive presentation of his work at the Spanish Pavilion at the 1984 Venice Biennale. His work is represented, among other institutions, at the MACBA and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.