Antoni Clavé (Barcelona, 1913 – Saint-Tropez, 2005) is one of the great protagonists of 20th century European art. His production -rich, varied and deeply personal- constitutes a coherent journey from the intimate portraits of his youth to the resounding and vibrant abstraction of his maturity. Whoever approaches Clavé’s works discovers a constant evolution guided by research, sensitivity and an increasingly refined plastic language.
The three works presented in this auction of works by Clavé – Portraitd’une jeune fille au chapeau (ca. 1954), Roi ( 1957) and En noir et bleu ( 1972) – provide a synthesis of the career of an artist who transformed diverse influences into a voice all his own.
The revival of modern portraiture in the 1950s
The decade of the fifties was a turning point for Clavé. Settled in Paris, he found there a stimulating artistic climate, marked by the post-war period and the presence of figures such as Picasso and Matisse. It is in this context that Portrait d’une jeune fille au chapeau emerges, a work in which the artist constructs a modern, refined figuration, free of academic rigidities.
The young woman portrayed seems to emerge from a silent and veiled atmosphere. The transparencies, the pictorial matter and the superimpositions give emotional depth, revealing Clavé’s ability to transform the portrait into a symbolic rather than descriptive territory. This piece constitutes a privileged gateway to understand how the artist transitions from figuration to a more essential language.
“Roi”: the symbol that heralds a new era
This transition is evident in Roi ( 1957), a fundamental work in the universe of Antoni Clavé. The motif of the king – recurrent in Clavé’s works – comes from his fascination with medieval iconography, tapestries, heraldic emblems and the antique objects he collected during his travels.
In this piece, the artist avoids narrative detail to focus on the strength of the gesture, the internal tension of the line and the materiality of the support. The result is an archetypal figure, austere and mysterious, that marks the boundary between figuration and abstraction.
The artist’s travels to Italy, the study of frescoes and reliefs, and the deep memory of Spanish Romanesque sculpture nourish this refined language. Roi anticipates a new creative phase where symbols become formal structures: they do not represent power, but introspection, identity and memory.
Abstract fullness: “En noir et bleu”.
The evolution that begins with Roi leads to the mature abstraction of the seventies. In En noir et bleu ( 1972), Clavé completely masters the relationship between gesture, color and matter. After decades of research, he no longer needs the figure to convey tension or depth.
The contrast between black and blue generates a vibrant and architectural space, where each plane is measured and each void breathes. This abstraction is not a rupture, but a distillation: it arises from years of travels, collections, oriental influences and workshop findings that converge in a visual poetics of great subtlety.
A coherent path: figuration and abstraction in dialogue
Taken together, these three pieces allow us to understand that in Clavé’s work there is no contradiction between figuration and abstraction. It is a permanent dialogue, a vital and artistic continuity. Clavé’s works show a creator capable of reinventing himself without losing coherence, attentive to what the world had to offer – from Barcelona to Paris, from Italy to Provence – and ready to transform each experience into pictorial matter.
The presence on the market of three such representative pieces constitutes an exceptional occasion for collectors and admirers. These works not only document different stages of his evolution, but also vindicate the relevance of an artist whose position within European art deserves greater visibility. Clavé is not a creator to be discovered, but to be rediscovered and revalued.
Three works by Clavé at auction
These pieces are part of the upcoming Contemporary Art auction, a unique opportunity to acquire significant works from the artist’s career. We invite you to explore the complete catalog at Setdart.com and discover in depth these three works that summarize the artist’s creative universe.
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