.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Executed in 1946, Garacon depicts a young child who ambiguously straddles the line between puppet and person. His gaunt expression recalls the climate of post Hiroshima, post-war Europe. This angst reflects Clavé's own concerns and experiences: he had arrived in Paris from Barcelona in 1939 having served as infantryman and later draughtsman with the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War. A year following the end of WWII, and two years after he met Picasso in Paris, he painted this passionate yet haunting work.
The subject, whose proportions and countenance resemble a doll, forces us to ask whether he is a boy (perhaps released from the control of a higher power), or rather an abandoned puppet. The figure's over-sized head commands the canvas. Steeped in a fiery-red background that is both flamboyant and nebulous, his head swells and his eyes are mesmerized. The figure is enshrouded with veils of translucent black ribbon that subdue the vibrant red background while heightening the contrast between the abundance of detail in the face and lack of detail in the body. The viewer is left with a sense of isolation that undoubtedly relates to the existentialist views that were predominant in France and we are reminded of the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus.
However lonely and isolated the picture seems, Garacon was painted during a particularly exciting moment of Clavé's career. In 1946 he travelled to Czechoslovakia where his work was included in an exhibition of Spanish painters held in Prague; he also produced a number of illustrations for the Dame de Pique de Pouchkine and executed his first theatrical design for the production of Los Caprichos for the Ballets des Champs-Elysées.
The subject, whose proportions and countenance resemble a doll, forces us to ask whether he is a boy (perhaps released from the control of a higher power), or rather an abandoned puppet. The figure's over-sized head commands the canvas. Steeped in a fiery-red background that is both flamboyant and nebulous, his head swells and his eyes are mesmerized. The figure is enshrouded with veils of translucent black ribbon that subdue the vibrant red background while heightening the contrast between the abundance of detail in the face and lack of detail in the body. The viewer is left with a sense of isolation that undoubtedly relates to the existentialist views that were predominant in France and we are reminded of the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus.
However lonely and isolated the picture seems, Garacon was painted during a particularly exciting moment of Clavé's career. In 1946 he travelled to Czechoslovakia where his work was included in an exhibition of Spanish painters held in Prague; he also produced a number of illustrations for the Dame de Pique de Pouchkine and executed his first theatrical design for the production of Los Caprichos for the Ballets des Champs-Elysées.