Antoni Clavé. Clavé amb majúscules
September 5th - November 16th, 2025
PALAU MARTORELL
Carrer Ample, 11. Barcelona. Spain
As a tribute in the artist's hometown, the Palau Martorell and the Reial Cercle Artístic, in collaboration with the Antoni Clavé Archives, are presenting a retrospective exhibition of Antoni Clavé's work, with the aim of exploring both his mastery and the importance of his work in the development of European artistic modernity. Two venues are hosting the exhibition: the Palau Martorell and the Reial Cercle Artístic, where more than 100 masterpieces from public and private collections will be on display.
Thus, 20 years after his death, Clavé amb majúscules —curated by Aude Hendgen, head of the Antoni Clavé Archives in Paris, and José Félix Bentz, co-founder of the Palau Martorell and president of the Reial Cercle Artístic—offers the opportunity to discover his art through his work produced during the different stages of his life in the cities where he lived or loved most: Barcelona, Paris, Tokyo and New York.
From his early works to the monumental canvases created for the Generalitat of Catalonia; passing through Paris, which saw him become one of the leading figures of the artistic renewal of the 1960s, Tokyo and New York, the latter two cities where he made such an impact that he completely transformed his art in the 1980s and 1990s.
Antoni Clavé is one of the great figures of 20th-century Catalan and Spanish art. His life journey, marked both by his roots in his native Barcelona and his subsequent forced exile to Paris, speaks of his constant adaptation and his inexhaustible career of experimentation. Clavé masterfully navigated painting, engraving, illustration, sculpture, poster art and theatre set design. He was a multidisciplinary artist whose outstanding creative ability brought together matter, texture and a profound sense of colour in his work to construct a universe that was both classic and fiercely modern. It is no surprise that art critic and historian Pierre Cabanne defined Clavé as ‘a craftsman in the noblest sense of the term, a man who knew the secrets of the material and knew how to transform it’.