FRANCESCO CLEMENTE

Francesco Clemente is an Italian Neo-Expressionist painter and 2-D artist. He was born in 1952 in Naples, Italy. He moved to Rome in 1970 to study architecture, but did not complete the program and instead directed his focus towards his artwork. At age 19, Clemente had his first solo exhibition in Rome. In 1973, Clemente went to India for the first time where he would later spend much of his time. In 1980, he left India for New York, gained notoriety in America, and collaborated with visual artists such as Warhol and Basquiat and writers like Ginsberg and Creely. Currently, Clemente spends his time working between New York, Italy, and India.

Grisaille Self-Portrait, Francesco Clemente, Oil on Canvas, 12x 12.5 ",1998

Clemente's work focuses primarily on the female body, self-portraiture, non-western spirituality, sexuality, and dreams. Clemente's vast collection of self-portraits stems from his belief that they are reflections of the fragmentation of the self; something organic and expanding from a center. Clemente claims the goal of the artist is to see the circle by stepping out of it. His concern has more specifically focused on images that break with the customary notion of the ego, continuity of discontinuity, and gaps in our experience. All of his work is about becoming aware of connections. Clemente says “I'm in love with the fragility of life.” and “Painting is not so much about decision, but acceptance.”

                                              Alba, Francesco Clemente, Oil on Linen, 46 x 92 ", 1997

I am largely fascinated with the themes present in Clemente's work. In coming of age, I have developed concern with the self, spirituality, and sensuality. I would like to reestablish the notion of conflict originating from inside the self as a subjective response to an outside fact instead of the thought that problems are directly related to the outside. The self is too often excluded from the equation. His series The History of the Heart in Three Rainbows was deeply moving to view and understand. He painted the series as one large watercolor and then cut it into the completed pieces. This could be a process that I would like to use for creating a body of work so that it is possible to understand the series to be one piece whilst working on it and later partition it into an experience. Clemente's self-portraits are also very inspiring to me because of their expressionist feel and depth of emotional content. I use self- portraits to imitate an out of body experience. When successful, I am able to focus on myself objectively through a perspective that is nearing the third person.  

                           The History of the Heart in Three Rainbows (III), Francesco Clemente, Watercolor on Paper, 2009