Francesco Clemente | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byMichael Avedon, 2011 | |
| Born | (1952-03-23)23 March 1952 (age 73) Naples, Italy |
| Education | architecture (University of Rome) |
| Known for | painting, drawing,artist's books |
| Website | francescoclemente |
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Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italiancontemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India andNew York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India.[1] He has worked in variousartistic media includingdrawing,fresco,graphics,mosaic,oils andsculpture.[2] He was among the principal figures in the ItalianTransavanguardia movement of the 1980s, which was characterized by a rejection ofFormalism andconceptual art and a return tofigurative art andSymbolism.[3]
Clemente was born in 1952 inNaples, inCampania in southern Italy. In 1970 he enrolled in the faculty ofarchitecture of theSapienza, the university of Rome, but did not complete a degree there.[3] In Rome he came into contact with contemporary artists such asLuigi Ontani andAlighiero Boetti, who had come to the city at about the same time,[4] and also with the AmericanCy Twombly, who lived there.[1] Boetti, who was ten years older, became both a friend and a mentor; in 1974 they visitedAfghanistan together.[5] With Ontani, Clemente gave performances at the Galleria L'Attico.[6] Despite his close involvement with these artists associated with theArte povera movement, and his interest in others such asPino Pascali andMichelangelo Pistoletto, Clemente preferreddrawing on paper. He made ink drawings of dreams and recollections of his childhood, and in 1971, in his first solo show, exhibitedcollages at the Galleria Giulia in Rome.[1]
In 1973 Clemente made the first of many visits toIndia.[1] He established a studio inMadras (now Chennai),[2] and became interested in bothIndian religions and folk traditions and inIndian art and theCrafts of India. In 1976 and 1977 he visited the library of theTheosophical Society of Madras to study the religious texts there.[3] In 1980 and 1981 he worked onFrancesco Clemente Pinxit, a series of twenty-fourgouaches on antique hand-maderag paper, in collaboration with miniature painters fromOrissa andJaipur.[1][3][7]: 88 In 1982 he moved toNew York City.[8]. Between 1986 and 1993, Clemente and Raymond Foye published a series of miniature books of contemporary, avant-garde or underground Western writings, printed and hand-sewn in India, under the imprintHanuman Books; a total of fifty titles were published.[9]: 242
Clemente's work has been widely shown. His early large canvases, painted in 1981–1982, were exhibited in 1983 at theWhitechapel Gallery in London and then in Germany and Sweden.[1] In 1986 theJohn and Mable Ringling Museum of Art inSarasota, Florida, mounted a travelling exhibition of his work.[3] Clemente participated in theBiennale di Venezia in 1988, 1993, 1995 and 1997; indocumenta inKassel, Germany, in 1992 and 1997; and in theWhitney Biennial, also in 1997.[2] Solo shows were held at thePhiladelphia Museum of Art in 1990; at theRoyal Academy of Arts in London in 1991;[10] at theSezon Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo in 1994; at theGalleria d'Arte Moderna ofBologna in 1999; at theSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2000; at theMuseo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli inNaples in 2002–2003; at theIrish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 2004; at Palazzo Sant'Elia inPalermoSicily in 2013; at both the Coro della Maddalena inAlba andSanta Maria della Scala inSiena in 2016; and at theNSU Art Museum inFort Lauderdale, Florida in 2017.[2][3]
In 1998 his work was used in the filmGreat Expectations, directed byAlfonso Cuarón.[3]
The highest selling painting by the artist wasThe Fourteen Stations, No. XI (1981-1982), who sold by $1,860,000 atChristie'sNew York, at 9 May 2022.[11]
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