Claudio Nelson Bravo Camus (November 8, 1936 in Valparaiso – June 4, 2011 in Taroudant) was a Chilean hyperrealist painter.
[1] In 1945, he left the family ranch to join the Colegio San Ignacio in Santiago, Chile, where he excelled in choir, literature and music.
The prefect, Father Dussuel, noticed his self-taught artistic ability and paid for him to study art in the studio of Miguel Venegas Cifuentes in Santiago.
[1] Bravo's developing hyperrealist style was encouraged by Venegas who was known for being a strong supporter of the realist movement in Chile.
Chile has a strong tie to European arts and did not experience a large modernist movement that other Latin American countries did.
Bravo established himself in Madrid in the 1960s as a society portraitist, gaining recognition for his astounding ability to create verisimilitude.
[1] His interest in Renaissance and Baroque works came from his many visits to the Museo del Prado in Madrid where he admired paintings done by old Spanish and Italian masters.
Specifically he was inspired by Diego Velázquez for his light effects, Francisco de Zurbarán’s cloth studies, Juan Sánchez Cotán’s still lifes, Juan van der Hamen who popularized still life painting in Madrid, and Luis Egidio Meléndez who had great technical skill in using light to depict texture.
Bravo’s portraits appealed to the conservative public, but he became frustrated with the lack of intellectual values concerning art.
A subtle reference to commercialism lingers in the simple fact that it is a parcel, but the mystery of what the paper conceals seems to be more important.
[citation needed] In this painting, the act of teasing also becomes sexual, reinforced by the color scheme that resembles an egg - a symbol for rebirth and fertility.
[dubious – discuss] Overall, White and Yellow Package showcases his ability as a painter and is a mix of contemporary imagery done with traditional values.
In 1969, Bravo met Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell who were in Spain collecting art – especially figure and surrealist pieces.
Bravo's relationship with the New York art scene stayed strong, but he began to feel the gray cement and urban setting affecting his work.
That, paired with the active social demands in both New York and Spain, caused him to start looking for a new place where he could dedicate more of his time to painting.
[4] Not wanting to cut himself off completely from his friends in Madrid, Bravo decided to spend some time in Morocco.
Morocco quickly became the place that he considered to be home and with his gardens and view, Bravo rarely needed to leave his house.
Though Bravo's style is hyper-realistic in nature, he rejected the assumption that he based his work on photographic imagery.
Many view his works as being a hybrid of multiple religions and styles - traditional techniques with contemporary sensibilities, Biblical saints displaced in a Moroccan world, and exotic objects next to common Western imagery.