Claudio Bravo Camus, painter. Born in Valparaíso on November 8, 1936, he passed away on June 4, 2011, in Taroudant, Morocco.
Coming from a family of farmers, he spent much of his childhood in the rural area of Melipilla. He began drawing at the age of eleven, showing a clear vocation for artistic expressions. Although his passion was not initially supported by those close to him, he managed to take classes in the workshop of Miguel Venegas Cifuentes, with whom he studied drawing and painting. Additionally, he wrote poetry, danced professionally with the Ballet Company of Chile, and worked at the Theater of Essay of the Catholic University.
In the early 1960s, he lived in Concepción, where he made a name for himself as a portraitist. After exhibiting his works at the University of Concepción and seeking to perfect his technique, he traveled to Europe in 1961. Captivated by the classical realist school of the great masters, he decided to settle in Madrid, Spain, where he gained fame as a portraitist of the high nobility and European aristocracy. In the mid-decade, portraits gave way to stunning still lifes. Everyday objects of modern life and others seemingly simple, such as stones and wrappings, dazzled viewers when brought to the canvas with meticulous realism. The artist had taken his technique to the limits of perfection.
In 1972, he settled in Tangier, Morocco. In the same year, he participated in Documenta 5 in Kassel, at a time when the hyperrealist trend led by Robert Bechtle and John Kacere was strongly emerging.
In 1981, he held his first exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in New York, a gallery that has since represented him internationally.
In 1994, he held a major solo exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts, which became one of the most attended in history.
For his merits and artistic contributions, he was granted Spanish nationality by the Council of Ministers of Spain on July 1, 2002.
From the mid-1990s until 2006, the artist divided his artistic work between Morocco and his residence in Puerto Octay in Chile. By 2008, he had permanently settled in Taroudant, in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
