Claudio Bravo (1936-2011)

Marlborough Gallery, Madrid
Private Collection, Spain
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, Latin American Art, November 16, 2011, lot 15, illustrated in color
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Madrid, Marlborough Gallery; Florida, Marlborough, Gallery; New York, Marlborough Gallery; Chile, Marlborough Gallery, 1999-2000, Claudio Bravo, New Works/Obras Recientes,  p. 9, illustrated in color

Paul Bowles, Francisco Calvo Serraller, Edward J. Sullivan, Claudio Bravo: Paintings and Drawings (1964-2004), Madrid, 2005, p. 330, illustrated in color

The picture itself is in nearly perfect condition. However, the canvas has visibly relaxed on its stretcher. The canvas could be tightened on this stretcher, or the stretcher could be replaced in favor for one that is better constructed. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Claudio Bravo's exquisitely rendered Seraphim (White, Yellow, and Green) unveils the artist's life-long devotion to mundane materials capable of transforming their shapes through human manipulation. Synthesizing classical and post-modernist concerns ranging from the Spanish Baroque tradition to color-field and Minimalism, Bravo’s technical mastery of trompe-l'oeil effects exudes a marvelous virtuosity unrivaled in Latin American painting from the twentieth-century. As with his first pictures of packages executed decades earlier in the 1960s, Bravo's late work from the 1990s continues to emanate an aura of mysticism while retaining its adherence to modernity. The following excerpt taken from a conversation between Claudio Bravo and art historian Edward Sullivan confirms his enduring allegiance to the tenets of classicism. 

ES: Since the late nineties you have been doing a series of large scale pictures with either cloth or paper hanging from a wall. They seem to me to represent the most abstract and even radical works that you have painted in your career. 

CB: Well yes, but all of what you see in my work now comes from things I've been thinking about and working with from a long time ago. What I'm trying to do here is unite my interest in the rare and the uncommon with visual aspects that are indeed quite contemporary. However, when I approach this or any other subject, my technique is always the same; it's rooted in my search for a classical type of precision. I guess that my entire career has been a continuous development of the same phenomenon. In so far as these "abstract" pictures are concerned, in one sense they are, as I've said, works in which I try to express a spirit of modernity..." (1)

1. Paul Bowles, Francisco Calvo Serraller and Edward J. Sullivan, Claudio Bravo: Paintings and Drawings (1964-2004), Madrid, 2005, p. 147