FRANCESCO CLEMENTE

Napoli 1952

[...] sitting in Madras at the Theosophical Society for several years, I was reading Indian authors who were familiar with the writings of Emerson, of Thoreau. So in India the prophets of America were already calling. [...] I still feel that for a painter the task is to put an object into the world that is not going to be an answer to anything. It's going to be a reality of its own. [...] The nature of painting is to redeem an undercurrent of sadness. (F. Clemente, 2003)

Francesco Clemente was born in Naples on March 23, 1952. After finishing high school he became a self-taught painter and a writer of poems. In 1970 he moved to Rome to attend the Faculty of Architecture, but he soon left it to dedicate himself to the artistic activity, making friends with Cy Twombly and Alighiero Boetti. With the latter, in particular, he crossed Afghanistan on foot in 1974. In the same year he met Joseph Beuys, with whom he shared an interest for Anthroposophy. Looking for new stimuli, in 1976-77 he lived in Madras, India - which he had first visited in 1973 - where he opened a studio. In addition to the interest for theosophical texts and Hindu culture he soon developed an interest for local artisanal cultures, which led him to execute the Pinxit series (1980–81) and the illustrations for the collection of volumes Selected Poems, 1958-1984 curated by Raymond Foye (1986). Although drawing remained his favourite mean of expression, he experimented with different techniques, including oil painting, mosaic, fresco, etching, sculpture. His works were structured as a travel journal or an intimate journal, with abstract elements, images, his self-portrait, decorative suggestions and symbols borrowed from oriental art, classical antiquity and the popular culture of cinema and television; all these features blended together and lent an air of sexuality, myth, spirituality, dream to the work. In 1979 he was numbered by Achille Bonito Oliva among the exponents of Transavantgarde – which aimed at reaffirming manual skills in art after the conceptual and performative trends of the previous century – and exhibited at the 39th Venice Biennial. The following year he moved to New York, where he studied Sanskrit and executed the first series of large-format paintings, The Fourteen Stations, that was displayed in 1983 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery of London. At the same time he collaborated with Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat and in 1985 he executed the murals for the Palladium nightclub (demolished). In the 1990s he became fascinated by Jamaica and opened a studio in New Mexico, where he learned a peculiar wax fresco technique. He is the author of the paintings and drawings executed by the protagonist of the film Paradise Lost directed in 1998 by Alfonso Cuarón and inspired by Charles Dickens’s novel, Gxpereat Ectations. In 1999 the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York dedicated a big retrospective exhibition to him, which also featured his famous collaboration works of the 1980s. In 2000 he executed the mural and the lampshades for the new Hudson Hotel of New York. After the anthological exhibition organized in 2003 by the National Museum of Naples, in 2004 he executed a site-specific work for the MADRE museum, commissioned by Fondazione Donna Regina, Ab Ovo: a floor with zoomorphic insertions, which renewed the tradition of ancient majolicas of the Campania Region. Two years later at the MAXXI in Rome he presented recent works from the Tandoori series (2003), which took its cue from Indian iconography and pastels of 2006 inspired by Christian art. He works in Madras and New York.

Francesco Clemente
Paolo Colombo
ITALY - 2006
Electa

INDEX

Bilingual

 

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE: Rome, MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, February 24 - April 30 2006

Bibliographical references

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Francesco Clemente
Paolo Colombo
ITALY - 2006
Electa

Francesco Clemente. The Sopranos
Arthur Danto
ITALY - 2008
Charta

INDEX

The eight best sopranos of the world: the great Italian artist portrays them as characters in their upcoming roles.

Bibliographical references

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Francesco Clemente. The Sopranos
Arthur Danto
ITALY - 2008
Charta

Francesco Clemente. Works, 1971-1979
Jean-Christophe Ammann
- 2007
Charta

INDEX

Bibliographical references

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Francesco Clemente. Works, 1971-1979
Jean-Christophe Ammann
- 2007
Charta

Francesco Clemente
Michael Auping
- 2000
Charta

INDEX

Bilingual.

Bibliographical references

BOOKSHOP

Francesco Clemente
Michael Auping
- 2000
Charta

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Francesco Clemente (Annali delle Arti)
Francesco Clemente
Electa Napoli - 2002

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Francesco Clemente
Pamela Kort
Salman Rushdi
Electa - 2009
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