Born in Barcelona in 1913, Antoni Clavé was first confronted by war in 1937. The theme of the warrior is found very early on in his art and is among the subjects that ensured him public recognition in Paris by 1958. In contact with the sculptures and African masks that he surrounded himself with in his ateliers, the figure of the warrior remained fundamental to Clavé’s work and haunted him his whole life. It was the artist’s favourite title and subject, and is an obsessive recurring image in Clavé’s sculptures, paintings, textile and wood assemblages through to the early 2000s.

It is through the prism of the memory of African masks that this catalogue takes a new look at the art of Antoni Clavé. Homage, admiration, appropriation, his connection to the arts of Africa is multiple. Clavé takes up his artistic weaponry to assert his pictorial identity, which is one of absolute modernity, timeless and universal.

Texts by: Franco Calarota, Illa Donwahi, Aude Hendgen, Sitor Senghor, José Corredor-Matheos

Text in English and French.