Illustration for "Carmen"

Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker and stage designer, active in France. Clavé was born in Barcelona in 1913. He incorporated into his publicity and ornamental work avant-garde techniques such as collage of newspaper, cardboard, rope, fabric, and other findings. Moving to France in 1939, Clavé held his first exhibition of drawings and gouaches in the town of Perpignan (southern France near Spain). He then settled in Paris where he made his first lithographs. In 1942, he showed at the Castelucho Gallery. During this period Clavé illustrated Prosper Merimée's "Lettres d'Espagne" with 27 color lithographs and a year later illustrated Merimee's novella "Carmen" with lithographs. Clavé met Picasso in 1944, in 1946 the Delpierre Gallery in Paris showed his work; the same year he designed the stage-sets for a ballet production.