Antoni Clavé

ANTONI CLAVÉ I SANMARTÍ (Barcelona, 1913 - Saint Tropez, France, 2005).
"Homage to El Greco".
Mixed media for Arches paper.
Preparatory drawing for the 1965 edition.
Signed.
Measurements: 65 x 50 cm; 79 x 62 cm (frame).

Antoni Clavé made representations inspired by El Greco as tributes within his own artistic language. In several series dedicated to great masters, Clavé took characteristic elements of the Cretan painter, such as elongated figures, verticality, spiritual dramatism and chromatic intensity, and transformed them through a more contemporary aesthetic, with greater presence of matter, texture and collage, while maintaining that atmosphere of tension and spirituality that identifies the work of El Greco.

Antoni Clavé developed a career deeply marked by his experience in the Civil War and his subsequent exile to France. In Paris he came into contact with Vuillard, Bonnard and, especially, Picasso, whose influence was decisive in his evolution towards a personal language that fuses collage, matter and symbolism. Awarded prizes at the New York Hallmark (1948), the Venice Biennial (1954) and the Tokyo International Biennial (1957), he consolidated his international prestige before his recognition in Spain, which began with his exhibition at the Sala Gaspar in 1956.

His work, present in institutions such as the Tate Gallery, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao or the Reina Sofia Museum, is today considered fundamental in the renewal of Spanish art of the twentieth century.