SAINT-LOUIS-ALSACE, FRANCE.- Espace D’art Contemporain Fernet-Branca presents Antoni Clavé, on view through October 29, 2006. This is the first time since 1978, when the last Clavé retrospective was held in the Paris Modern Art Gallery, that such a large selection of his monumental works has been presented in France. With 67 large canvases, produced between 1959 and 2005, some of which were included in the works shown in the Spanish hall during the 1984 Venice Bienniale, this exhibition provides a wide view of the painter’s artistic development.

Antoni Clavé, born in 1913 in Barcelona, was attracted to painting very young, but had to work, at the age of thirteen, while attending evening classes at Art College. In 1939, he crossed the Pyrenees, seeking refuge in France after the Republicans' defeat. He arrived in Paris penniless and without papers. After a difficult period, he travelled through Europe, produced sets and costumes for ballets, provided illustrations for numerous books and lithographs. Exhibitions of his works started throughout the world: Paris, London, New York, Barcelona, Geneva, Tokyo. He then devoted himself to painting. In 1963, he moved to Cap St Pierre in St Tropez where he had a house built with an extensive workshop, and later on another one devoted to engraving - for him, the workshop the rectangle where I work … played a crucial part in his art. The 1980s saw Clavé gaining recognition in his native country where more and more exhibitions of his work we re being held. The Spanish hall in the 1984 Venice Bienniale was devoted to him. The Chozo Yoshii Gallery presented in 2005 in Tokyo, then in Paris, Clavé's last great paintings, just before he.died at the age of 92, on 31 August 2005 in St Tropez.