Antoni Clavé was one of Spain's best known and most celebrated artists. A Catalan master painter, printmaker, sculptor, stage designer and costume designer, he was even nominated for two Academy Awards for his work on the 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen.
Clavé was trained at the School of Fine Arts, Barcelona, where he was taught by Angel Ferrant and Felix Mestres. His early works were influenced by artists such as Bonnard, Vuillard and Roualt. During the Spanish Civil War he served as a draughtsman for the Republican government, but eventually was forced to flee to France. He eventually settled in Paris in 1939 without any papers, making ends meet by drawing comics and working as an illustrator. In the 1950s Clavé worked largely in theatre and film sets. Beginning in 1960 he explored sculpture, creating bas-reliefs, assemblages, totem-like wood statues, and objets trouvé. Throughout his prolific career, Clavé’s work evolved from a baroque, ornamental style to a minimalist and abstract aesthetic. “Masque Mobile” is an example of his explorations in abstract sculpture, influenced by his interest in collage, assemblage and objets trouvés. The intriguing three-dimensional bronze draws in the viewer to inspect its every facet, which is familiar but not quite identifiable.
Clavé was given a comprehensive retrospective at the Centre Pompidou Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1978. He passed away in 1980, and shortly thereafter, the 1984 Venice Biennale dedicated the Spanish Pavillion to the artist. Clavé’s work is displayed in many museums, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Tate Gallery, London; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao; Museum of Modern Art, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and The British Museum, London.
