Claudio Bravo

Claudio Bravo – No future in Chile; success as a portrait artist in Madrid

Claudio Bravo was born on 8 November 1936 in the Chilean harbour town of Valparaiso. At the age of 24, completely empty handed, he left his home of Chile due to the lack of the correct comprehension of art, as he once stated in his adopted country of Morocco. Things would turn out differently in Morocco – the artist would own three palaces and would be revered like a king. First however, his path led to Madrid where he made a name for himself as a portrait painter. Producing over 300 portraits in the space of eight years, his clients included illustrious personalities such as the Spanish royal family of King Juan Carlos, his wife Sofia and their three children. Claudio Bravo studied the old Baroque and Renaissance masters in the richly filled museums of the Spanish capital, with Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán his preferred artists at this time. He held his first exhibition in 1963 in Madrid, followed in 1970 in the Steampfli Gallery in New York – always accompanied by critical acclaim.

Celebrated exhibitions around the world

In 1972 at the age of only 36, Claudio Bravo was invited to Documenta 5 in Kassel to participate in the ‘Realism’ section. Numerous exhibitions in the cultural metropoles of the world followed, mirrored by lavish critical praise as well as growing financial success which gave the artist independence and great freedom. Whilst his hyperrealistic style became increasingly sharp – one which art lovers liked to call ‘photorealism’ – Bravo himself was hostile to this label. He was not photorealistic because he had never painted from a photo, he used to explain gruffly. Claudio Bravo was not short of self-confidence: he saw himself as blessed by heaven, as the bearer of a gift that no one but him had received. 

Morocco, adopted country and inspiration

The move to Morocco was a fortunate decision for Claudio Bravo as it became not only his new home but was also an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The rich oriental colouring in particular and the absence of the social constraints so hated in Spain opened up a whole new artistic freedom for Bravo. His choice of subject matter expanded enormously, his representations often went beyond reality in their richness of detail and plasticity – Claudio Bravo’s pictures are at times so realistic that they become abstract. At the same time, the artist greatly valued reflecting many influences but did not like to possess one true role model – he did not follow anyone but created his own reality which he attempted to capture in his pictures. Claudio Bravo always saw his art as work, accusing young artists of often relying too much on intuition and improvisation; he himself went to work every day with great discipline and spent many hours in front of the easel even in old age. He was unperturbed by criticism: he agreed with the positive and laughed about the negative. 

Claudio Bravo died on 4 June 2011 in Taroudannt, Morocco.