Antoni CLAVÉ (1913-2005) - Lot 24

Antoni CLAVÉ (1913-2005) Theater set for Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Michel Crochot, performed in Venice in 1962, based on the musical work by Claude Debussy. Watercolor, gouache and collage on paper 44.5 x 71 cm Framed PROVENANCE Collection of Monsieur Michel Crochot, French stage director NOTICE Spanish painter, engraver and sculptor, he first made a name for himself as a designer of cinema posters, to which he incorporated, not without an avant-garde spirit, collages of materials of all kinds, from rope to printed fabric, from corrugated cardboard to newspaper fragments. He quickly made a name for himself in this specialty, and continued his research into new materials with Salvador Ortiga, his fellow student at La Llotja. His other friends at the time were Emilio Grau Sala, Apelles Fenosa, Manolo and Eudald Serra. In Paris, during the Occupation, he tried his hand at painting in a style influenced by Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Georges Rouault and Chaïm Soutine. His first meeting with Pablo Picasso in 1944 was a revelation; from that date, he began to practice collage on cardboard, wallpaper, string, rope, etc., and launched into lithography with his work on bibliophilic illustrations (Les Lettres d'Espagne, Carmen). Antoni Clavé's submission to the 1944 Salon d'Automne is cited by René Huyghe and Jean Rudel as "one of the outstanding works by artists destined for glory", along with those by Jean Aujame, Jean Bazaine, Jacques Despierre, Léon Gischia, Jean Le Moal, Alfred Manessier, André Marchand, Mario Prassinos and Gustave Singier. Antoni Clavé is greatly inspired by bullfighting. He produced a large number of lithographs on this subject, including La Corrida and Toreros, for which he interpreted the costume (Torero en costume rouge) for choreographer Boris Kochno, whose ballet Los Caprichos had been performed in 1943 by the company les Ballets des Champs-Élysées directed by Roland Petit. He enjoyed great success with his theater and ballet sets, and is still regarded as "one of the most important theater decorators of the post-war period, using the stage space in its totality, not only as a painter, but also as a director, with a chromaticism ranging from the most violent red to the deepest gray". In parallel with his work in Paris, he set up an etching studio in Saint-Tropez, where he learned etching and aquatint. In a series of plates, he paid tribute to Rembrandt, Goya and Albrecht Dürer, and in 1968 discovered carborundum etching, recently perfected by Henri Goetz.