Antoni Clavé

Spanish master painter, printmaker, sculptor, and stage designer Antoni Clave is one of Spain's best known and most celebrated artists. His work evolved from a baroque, ornamental style to a pure, minimal aesthetic. In his later years, his work is completely abstract, employing expressive lines and exploring the boundaries of shading, texture and color.

He studied at the Art college of Barcelona. He first dedicated himself to graphics in the advertisement, to the illustration of books for children and to the decorative arts.

During the Spanish Civil War, Clavé was hired to design posters for the Republican government, though he eventually fled to France. Influenced early in his career by artists like Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, in the 1940s he met and befriended Picasso, a meeting that altered the trajectory of his work.

His work is displayed in many museums, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, National Museum of Serbia, Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid in Spain Museo Patio Herresriano, Tate Gallery, London, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia Museo Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and The British Museum, London.