Antoni Clavé

ANTONI CLAVÉ I SANMARTÍ (Barcelona, 1913 - Saint Tropez, France, 2005).
"The Knight with his hand on his chest". Series Hommage à Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1965.
Lithograph on paper. Copy 4/30.
Bibliography:
- Reproduced in Antoni Clavé. Obra gráfica 1957-1983, Pierre Seghers, nº 17, Editorial Sala Gaspar, Barcelona, 1983.
- Reproduced in Antoni Clavé. L'Oeuvre gravé 1939-1976, Roger Passeron, nº 91, Office du Livre, Fribourg, 1977.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 66 x 50 cm; 78 x 63 cm (frame).
The work is an explicit homage to El Greco, reinterpreting in a contemporary key one of the most recognizable icons of Spanish painting of the Golden Age. Far from proposing a literal copy, Antoni Clavé reworks the figure of the knight through a personal plastic language, characterized by formal fragmentation, material density and graphic experimentation typical of his mature production.
The composition maintains the hieratic frontality and the emblematic gesture of the hand on the chest, but the physiognomic features and clothing are broken down into superimposed planes and vibrant textures. The treatment of black, a fundamental color in the Spanish tradition and particularly associated with the Grecian original, acquires a structural dimension in Clavé. The lithography evidences Clavé's mastery of graphic procedures. The tonal superimpositions, the effects of grain and the richness of shades demonstrate a sophisticated exploration of the medium, coherent with his intense dedication to graphic work since the late 1950s.
Antoni Clavé, born in Barcelona in 1913 and exiled in France after the Spanish Civil War, developed an international career marked by versatility and constant formal renewal. Initially linked to the field of illustration and scenography, he evolved towards a language close to informalism and material abstraction, without ever abandoning the reference to the figure and the Spanish pictorial tradition. His dialogue with masters such as Velázquez, Goya and, in this case, El Greco, is part of a reflection on cultural identity and artistic memory reinterpreted from a contemporary sensibility.