r.i.p. Claudio Bravo

Claudio Bravo,  born  Claudio Nelson Bravo Camus Nov. 8, 1936, in Valparaíso, Chile, died in Morroco June 4, 2011 at age 74. He certainly was a successful artist.

Works by Bravo are included in the collections of El Museo del Barrio, New York, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; The Palmer Museum of Art, State College, Pennsylvania; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

Imelda Cojoangco

As his client list included the rich and famous or infamous,  he is perhaps not so well known to the general public. Critics have praised his works, but also called it 'cheap and vulgar'. nevertheless he became rich enough to have bought three homes in Morroco: in Taroudant, a house dubbed "the refuge of the artist" - a fortress against the outside world; in Marrakech, a small palace in the Medina, and in Tangier, a large garden estate shown here with Bravo in the foreground, where he died.



He showed talent at an early age, but his family was not supportive. While still at school he had some lessons with Miguel Venegas Cifuentes.
As mainly selftaught artist, he had his first exhibition at age 17 at Salón 13 in Valparaíso. He was also a dancer with the Compañia de Ballet de Chile and then actor at the Teatro Ensayo at the Catholic University of Chile.

After moving to Spain, he was most sought after by society as a realistic portrait artist.

He is well known for paintings of packeges in paper,
or  of folds meticulously executed

As self taught artists he painted in various styles,

no doubt modeled after several  favorite masters

whose technique he must have studied in detail.

This does resemble a stern face, an Olmec face, perhaps?

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  Rene Magritte, perhaps?

 

Other paintings were more traditional,  perhaps reminiscent of neo-classicism -  such as the mother and child at right!

And surely others inspired him as well:

Braques, Magritte



A bit Braquesque, NO?

He also painted still lifes such as this

'Four flowers'

and sometimes rather unusual portraits

'Portrait of Antonio Corres'

landscapes

 

and more paintings of packages




                                                          And was a good draftsman as well

He is not to be confused  ;-) with Chilean Soccer Star - goalkeeper of same name Claudio Bravo born as Claudio Andrés Bravo Muñoz (born 13 April 1983 : who started in all four matches for Chile (remaining as captain), conceding five goals in an eventual  0–3 loss against Brazil in World cup 2010. He plays for Real Madrid.