Bravo was born in Valparaiso, Chile, on November 8, 1936. He was the son of Tomás Bravo Santibáñez, a successful businessman and an owner of a ranch, and Laura Camus Gómez, a housewife. His parents had seven children: María Inés, Claudio Bravo, Patricia, Ana María, José Tomás, Hernán, and Ximena.
Claudio Bravo left the family ranch to join the Colegio San Ignacio in Santiago, Chile, in 1945. There he excelled his skills in literature, choir, and music. The future artist had some problems with math, physics or chemistry, and in order to raise his grades, he painted his teacher a portrait. The prefect, Father Dussuel, noticed his artistic talent, sent him to the studio of Miguel Venegas Cifuentes in Santiago and paid for Bravo's studies there. Eventually, Claudio Bravo's father gave him permission to take the classes and took over the responsibility of paying for his education.
Bravo studied under the direction of Venegas from the age of 11 to 20. It was the only formal art training he ever received. Claudio Bravo’s hyperrealist style in painting was encouraged by Miguel Venegas Cifuentes who was known for being a strong adherent 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 at that time.
Bravo had his first exhibition at "Salón 13" (1954) in Santiago when he was only 17. He presented mostly oil paintings in combination with some red chalk drawings. The exhibit received great reviews and was a success. All the works displayed by the artist were sold, although they were purchased mainly by members of family and friends.
Claudio Bravo became involved in the cultural scene of Santiago and was greatly influenced by such people as Luis Oyarzun, a poet and philosopher. Bravo and Oyarzun hitchhiked together throughout Chile, while Oyarzun acted as a teacher of art, philosophy, and life. Benjamín Subercaseaux, a writer and researcher, was another Bravo's friend who encouraged him to expand his knowledge through reading. In 1955 Claudio Bravo became a professional dancer of the Compañía de Ballet de Chile, worked for Teatro de Ensayo of the Universidad Católica de Chile as well as had his second exhibition at "Salón 13".
At the age of 21, Bravo started to produce portraits in Concepción, Chile, and quickly received many commissions. He saved money and bought a ticket aboard the Amerigo Vespucci, wanting to sail to Paris. However, it was very stormy during the trip and Bravo got off at Barcelona and made his way to Madrid where he stayed for some time.
In the 1960s, Claudio Bravo established himself in Madrid as a society portraitist. There he gained recognition for his sensational ability to create verisimilitude. His ability to depict complex objects, as well as shapes, was comparable with Diego Velázquez. There was even a dress designer, Balenciaga, whose dresses had a Renaissance quality to them. The artist made noble women purchase one of Balenciaga's works before he agreed to paint their portraits. A year and two months after his arrival, Bravo was already painting the daughter of Francisco Franco, a Spanish general and military dictator of the country from 1939 until his death in 1975.
His interest in Baroque and Renaissance works was explained by his constant visits to the Museo del Prado in Madrid. He admired paintings created by old Spanish and Italian masters. In particular, he was inspired by Diego Velázquez for his light effects, Juan Sánchez Cotán’s still lifes, Francisco de Zurbarán’s cloth studies, and Juan van der Hamen who popularized still life painting in Madrid.
In 1968 Claudio Bravo was invited by President Marcos of the Philippines to paint him and his wife, Imelda Marcos, as well as members of the high society. He spent six months there producing portraits and travelling. Bravo held a show at the Luz Gallery in Manila where he exhibited over 50 artworks.
When Spain became ruled by Francisco Franco, most art was constrained to his ultra-right-wing policies. Bravo’s portraits were popular among the conservative public, but the artist was frustrated with the lack of intellectual values concerning art. A new period started in his artistic career when his three visiting sisters brought home some packages and left them on the table. Bravo was extremely fascinated by the texture of the paper and the forms of the packages. His first exhibit in Spain, held at the Galería Fortuny in 1963, included various types of paintings, including these new package ones.
Claudio Bravo met Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell in 1969; they were in Spain collecting art, chiefly figure and surrealist art pieces. Blake and Purnell encouraged Bravo to move to the United States and introduced him to the art scene of the country. Claudio Bravo moved into an apartment on the East Side of Manhattan. In 1970 Bravo had his first American exhibition at the Staempfli Gallery in New York. After the show, he received rapturous reviews from famous New York Times art critic John Canaday. However, years later, when Bravo's works reflected the hippie movement, Canaday would refer to his artworks as "cheap and vulgar".
Tired of the grey cement and urban setting, Bravo decided to spend some time in Morocco. Bravo moved to Tangier in 1972, where he became an owner of a 19th-century three-story mansion. He removed many of the walls, and the remaining ones he painted white to encourage the Mediterranean light so present in his paintings. It was in Marocco, that he found the colours and light he had been searching for.
In an attempt to reconnect with the Moroccan world around him, Claudio Bravo purchased a second home in Marrakech that became his winter residence. Some time later, Bravo bought a third home in Taroudant. Although Bravo's style is hyper-realistic in nature, he turned down the presumption that he based his artworks on photographic imagery. Actually, he had a daily ritual of painting. It began with a walk in the garden and ended after he spent hours in his studio painting a present subject. He was entirely dedicated to painting and tried to paint every day.
Still lifes, packages and figurative paintings make up the majority of the works that he executed in Morocco. His use of Surrealism becomes more prominent at this period of time. It was mainly noticeable in his juxtaposition of objects, dreamlike compositions and aery backgrounds. Bravo also became interested in the spiritual aspects of the Islamic culture that had a sense of religious intensity. Many considered his works to be a hybrid of different religions and styles.
Claudio Bravo became of the best-known and highly respected artists of his time, famous for his paintings of still lifes, portraits and packages. Bravo painted many prominent figures in society, including caudillo Francisco Franco Bahamonde of Spain, President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos of the Philippines and Malcolm Forbes.
His works have become the subject of two large monographs, "Claudio Bravo: Paintings and Drawings," published in 1997 by Abbeville Press, and "Claudio Bravo: Painting and Drawings," published by Rizzoli in 2005.
Bravo was a recipient of a number of awards. He received the Hall of Fame Honour, the Pastel Society of America, New York, in 1996; the International Distinguished Artist Award from Art Miami, Miami, Florida, and the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise from Alfonso X El Sabio, Madrid, Spain, both in 2000; and the Gold Medal of Honour from Casita Maria, Bronx, New York, in 2005.
The artist's artworks are held in major collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio (New York City), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, Chile), Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany), the Palmer Museum of Art (Pennsylvania State University), the Honolulu Museum of Art, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Red Hats
Blue Chilaba
Red Marjana
Vendredi Saint
Babouchas
In illo tempore
Enzo
Lilium tingitane
Red Still life
Pinball
Abullah and sponges
Lux Perpetua
Mystic package
The veil
Return from the supermarket
Portrait of Imelda Cojuangco
Circe
The fortune-teller
Coke Love
Portrait of María Luisa Velasco
Morocco
Bust of Woman and Plant
Baskets
Blue Marjana
Four Stone Groups
Green Paper on Green Background
Dos Plantas
Pumpkin and Gourds
New York Still Life
Narcissus
Japanese objects
Purple and Beige Paper
The Gift
Untitled (Papel aluminio)
Flowers
Breads
Eagle
Burrito
Bravo did not consider himself to belong to any particular culture but he was rather a man interested in different fields.
Quotations: "The photorealists, like machines, copied directly from photographs. Always I have relied on the actual subject matter because the eye sees so much more than the camera: halftones, shadows, minute changes in the colour or light. I think I was working more in the tradition of the Color Field artists, like Mark Rothko, whom I still greatly admire. There was also a touch of the Spanish artist Antoni Tàpies, because he, too, did paintings involving string across a canvas surface."
Claudio Bravo was single for the last 2 decades of his life, in an interview for El Mercurio he explained, "That [romantic love] was very complicated for me... I’m too passionate and jealous. I decided that my paintings and my animals were my best sources of love. I don’t think I’ve had anyone in my bed since I was 50. I got tired of it."
Bashir Tabchich was Bravo's assistant who was first hired as a chauffeur but later relocated to the artist's residence with his wife and children and had served as an assistant since 1979. Tabchich currently organizes tours at Bravo's Taroudant Palace, or "Agwidr Claudio Bravo Camus."
