Antoni Clavé

ANTONI CLAVÉ I SANMARTÍ (Barcelona, 1913 – Saint-Tropez, France, 2005).
“Un instrument,” 1982.
Mixed media (oil, chalk, collage of fabric and paper, thumbtacks, and string) on wood.
Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Clavé Archives.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 45 x 35 cm.
The title provides an initial clue to interpreting the work. Clavé does not literally depict an instrument, but rather evokes its presence through forms and materials reminiscent of an assembled object. This ambiguity between representation and object is characteristic of his mature artistic language, in which recognizable elements are fragmented and transformed until they take on an almost symbolic character. The use of real materials is particularly significant. The thumbtacks and strings protrude from the surface, cast small shadows, and lend a physical dimension that could not be achieved through painting alone. Clavé thus transforms the surface into a kind of constructed relief, situated between painting, collage, and assemblage.
This exploration had important precedents in his work from the late 1970s and early 1980s. MACBA holds several pieces from the *Instrument étrange* series, created around 1980, in which the artist similarly explored relief and the material possibilities of the support.
Trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where his teachers included Fèlix Mestres, Josep Mongrell, and Àngel Ferrant, Clavé began his career as a poster artist and illustrator before devoting himself fully to painting and printmaking. After the Civil War, he went into exile in France and settled in Paris, where he came into contact with the School of Paris. His international recognition took hold in the 1950s, with exhibitions in major European capitals, the United States, and Japan. Among his major achievements are the UNESCO Prize for Printmaking at the Venice Biennale (1956), the retrospectives in Paris in 1978, and his participation in the 1984 Venice Biennale—the year he received the Gold Medal from the Generalitat de Catalunya.His work is represented in major public collections, including the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, which holds 82 of the artist’s works, the MACBA in Barcelona, as well as the BBVA Collection and the European Parliament’s Contemporary Art Collection.