Cladio Bravo

b. November 8, 1936

Born in Chile in 1936, Claudio Bravo has lived and worked in Tangier, Morocco since 1972. After studying at the Colegio San Ignacio in Santiago, Chile, he had his first exhibition at the age of 17. Later establishing himself in Madrid in the 1960’s as a society portraitist, he rapidly gained recognition for his astounding ability to create verisimilitude, the depiction of complex objects and shapes reminiscent of Velázquez. Demonstrating mastery in all techniques and mediums on paper, his superior draftsmanship closely resembles the style of the Renaissance-Baroque tradition. Bravo’s ability to depict creases, indentations, and folds in his still lifes is reminiscent of Spanish masters such as Zurbarán and Velázquez.

Today, Bravo continues to create figurative paintings, drawings, and prints and his exceptional ability to give life to mundane objects is unparalleled. The emotion he captures is also present in his lithographs, as they hold the same warmth and detail found in his oil paintings. His most recent series of lithographs features animals and skulls of animals native to his home in
Morocco. Works by Claudio Bravo are included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; Rufino Tamayo Museum of International Contemporary Art, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Peter Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.