Lot Essay
White Package,1969, is one of Claudio Bravo's most appealing paintings in his Package series. Chilean artist Claudio Bravo's first exhibition took place in 1963 at the Galería Fortuny, Madrid. 'In this first exhibition I had all types of paintings. There were new parcels-the first ones I did-and some paintings with compositions in stone. Paintings where I wanted to mix realism with abstraction, because abstract art was very well thought of and realism not so much at the time. In these large parcels I began to mix my realism with certain touches of abstract painting, for example like Rothko's.' As Bravo states, 'the initial stimulus however, was a mundane one. Three of my sisters had come to stay with me from Chile. One day one of them came home with a number of packages and placed them on a table. I was fascinated by the forms and painted them.' (1)
The package paintings contain deep and powerful links to specifically Spanish traditions Bravo studied in the Prado Museum. As in many other works throughout his career, Bravo continued to rely on his reference to the arts of the old masters. In the package works, paper and cloth are studied for their tactile properties. Close links are thus established with the art of masters such as Zurbarán, Sánchez Cotán and Antonio de Pereda. As Edward J. Sullivan writes in his study of the 'packages' phenomenon, 'These Baroque realists evoked, more successfully than any others of their generation, the transendental qualities of textiles. The intense whites and the palpable folds in the cloth as well as the rough weave of the linens of the habits of the cloistered monks and nuns in these Spanish renditions of saintliness are among the most salient features of their art which was deeply admired by Bravo.'
_______________________________________________
1. Bass Museum of Art, Claudion Bravo Wrapped Packages, Miami Beach, 1998, p. 16
The package paintings contain deep and powerful links to specifically Spanish traditions Bravo studied in the Prado Museum. As in many other works throughout his career, Bravo continued to rely on his reference to the arts of the old masters. In the package works, paper and cloth are studied for their tactile properties. Close links are thus established with the art of masters such as Zurbarán, Sánchez Cotán and Antonio de Pereda. As Edward J. Sullivan writes in his study of the 'packages' phenomenon, 'These Baroque realists evoked, more successfully than any others of their generation, the transendental qualities of textiles. The intense whites and the palpable folds in the cloth as well as the rough weave of the linens of the habits of the cloistered monks and nuns in these Spanish renditions of saintliness are among the most salient features of their art which was deeply admired by Bravo.'
_______________________________________________
1. Bass Museum of Art, Claudion Bravo Wrapped Packages, Miami Beach, 1998, p. 16