Claudio Bravo

Claudio Nelson Bravo Camus (November 8, 1936 – June 4, 2011) was a Chilean hyperrealist painter. He was greatly influenced by Renaissance and Baroque artists, as well as Surrealist painters such as Salvador Dalí. He lived and worked in Tangier, Morocco, beginning in 1972. Bravo also lived in Chile, New York City and Spain. He was known mainly for his paintings of still lifes, portraits and packages, but he had also done drawings, lithographs, engraving and figural bronze sculptures. Bravo painted many prominent figures in society, including caudillo Franco of Spain, President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos of the Philippines and Malcolm Forbes.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio (New York City), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, Chile), Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, Netherlands), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany), the Palmer Museum of Art (Pennsylvania State University), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are among the public collections holding works by Bravo.

Early life and education in Chile Bravo was born in Valparaíso, Chile, to Tomás Bravo Santibáñez and Laura Camus Gómez. His father was a successful businessman who also owned a ranch, and his mother was a housewife. They had seven children: María Inés, Claudio Bravo, Patricia, Ana María, José Tomás, Hernán, and Ximena. One of his earliest childhood memories was being put on a horse at the age of three.

Personal life Bravo was celibate for the last 2 decades of his life. In an interview for El Mercurio he stated, "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."

Bravo was assisted by Bachir Tabchich who was first hired as chauffeur but later relocated to Bravo's residence with his wife and children and worked as Bravo's assistant since 1979. Tabchich currently permits tours at Palais Claudio Bravo which is 10 kilometers north of Taroudant.

Public collections

Archer M. Huntington Gallery of Art, University of Texas (Austin, Texas) Art Museum, Florida International University (Miami, Florida) Art Museum, Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey) Ateneum Art Museum (Helsinki, Finland) Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, Maryland) Doane College Museum (Crete, Nebraska) Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, South Carolina) Indiana University Art Museum (Bloomington, Indiana) Kansas City Art Institute (Kansas City, Missouri) Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, Missouri) Mitter Heinisches Landesmuseum (Mainz, Germany) Museo de Arte Abstracto (Cuenca, Spain) Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico) Colección D.O.P. (Paris, France) Museo de Artes Visuales, Colección Santa Cruz-Yaconi (Santiago, Chile) Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, Chile) Museum Boymans-van Beuningen (Rotterdam, Netherlands) Museum of Art, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, Massachusetts) Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany) Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Rufino Tamayo Museum of International Contemporary Art (Mexico City, Mexico) The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York) The Metropolitan Museum and Arts Center (Miami, Florida) Fundación D.O.P. (Madrid, Spain) The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, New York) The Museum of Modern Art (New York, New York)