Antoni Clavé

Antoni Clavé (Spain, 1913–France, 2005) studied at the Llotja under Fèlix Mestres, Josep Mongrell, and Ángel Ferrant. He was a painter, printmaker, sculptor, set designer, and costume designer. After the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile in France and, after living in Perpignan, settled in Paris, where he became associated with the School of Paris.

His work evolved from an intimate realism toward expressionism, symbolism, informalism, and experimental abstraction. He worked in painting, printmaking, collage, assemblage, papier froissé, sculpture, and set design, paying special attention to texture, color, material, and the relationship between the pictorial and the sculptural. He also created works for theater, ballet, and film, and was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1953 for art direction and costume design for *Hans Christian Andersen*.

In 1978, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris dedicated a retrospective to him focusing on his work from 1958 to 1978, and his work was featured in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1984 Venice Biennale. That same year, he received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. His work is part of the collections of the Reina Sofía Museum, which holds 82 pieces, as well as the Tate, MoMA, MACBA, Afundación, the European Parliament, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.