BARCELONA IN THE 1930s

With the advent of the Second Republic and freedom of the press, poster art became very popular. In 1932, Clavé won second prize in a poster competition organised by the Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona (Barcelona Savings and Pension Bank) and decided that he would give up his job as a house painter as soon as an artistic opportunity arose. This came in early 1933, when the company CINAES (Cinematografía Nacional Española, Spanish National Film Company) was looking for a poster artist. CINAES needed an illustrator to promote American, Spanish and French films being released on the facades and in the lobbies of the El Capitol, El Catalunya, El Fémina and El Tívoli cinemas. Antoni Clavé got the job. He had to produce five posters a week with the aim of arousing the interest of passers-by so that they would buy a ticket. These are quick, graphic and ephemeral works, not printed like official advertising posters, but painted on wrapping paper and stuck to cinema windows. His technical skill and the tricks he learned as a house painter are immediately put to use in his pictorial invention.