Francesco Clemente (1952)

Aliases: Francesco (1952) Clemente

Professions: Painter; Water colorist; Sculptor

• 

  

  Francesco Clemente (b. 1952)

• 

  

  l - Francesco Clemente , b. 1952 Mother of Paintings oil on burlap

• 

  

  Francesco Clemente (b. 1952)

• 

  

  FRANCESCO CLEMENTE

• Francesco Clemente Related Content
• Francesco Clemente at Auction Now
• Francesco Clemente Sold at Auction

Francesco Clemente Biography

(b Naples, 23 March 1952). Italian painter. In 1970 he began studying architecture in Rome at the Università degli Studi ‘La Sapienza’, establishing a studio where he made drawings, many based on childhood memories and dreams (e.g. collection of untitled ink drawings, 1971; Basle, Kstmus.). He became involved in Roman avant-garde art circles and befriended the Italian painter Alighiero Boetti (b 1940), whose work, together with that of Joseph Beuys and Cy Twombly, was an early influence. Clemente’s first solo exhibition of collages was held at the Galleria Giulia, Rome, in 1971. His interest in the art, folklore and mysticism of India began with yearly visits from 1973 (e.g. Francesco Clemente Pinxit , series of 24 paintings in gouache on handmade paper, 1980–81; Richmond, VA Mus. F.A.). In 1974 he travelled with Boetti to Afghanistan, producing a series of pastel drawings. Clemente came to prominence in the mid-1970s with his intensely subjective, erotic imagery of frequently mutilated body parts, skewed self-portraits and gesturing, ambivalent figures, often depicted in rich colours. He was part of the revolt against formalism and the detached qualities of much conceptual art, which linked him with such painters as Sandro Chia, David Salle and Georg Baselitz. The eclecticism and highly personal symbolism in his work is evidence of an itinerant life spent between three homes: in Madras, New York and Rome. Clemente’s first large-scale oil paintings were executed during a stay in New York (1981–2) and subsequently shown first at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, then in Germany and Stockholm (1983). The violent, expressionist style and arcane, quasi-religious content of these and later paintings defied easy definition as his work grew more surreal (e.g. 2 Seeds , oil on canvas, 1983; Chicago, IL, A. Inst.). In 1984 in New York he worked on collaborative projects with the American painter Jean Michel Basquiat and with Andy Warhol.

Back to the Top

Francesco Clemente Related Content

• Auction Houses

• Featured Houses (12)

  • Artcurial - Briest - Poulain - F. Tajan
  • Capitolium Art
  • Dominic Winter Book Auctions
  • Doyle New York
  • Freeman's
  • Koller Auctions
  • Piasa
  • Pierre Bergé & Associés
  • Stair Galleries
  • Swann Auction Galleries
  • Tajan
  • Villa Grisebach
  • Other Houses (34)
  • Auktionskammare Uppsala
  • Auktionsverket
  • Bloomsbury Auctions
  • Bonhams
  • Bonhams
  • Brerarte
  • Briest
  • Butterfield, Butterfield & Dunning
  • Cambi Casa d'Aste
  • Catherine Charbonneaux
  • Christie's
  • Christies East
  • Clark Cierlak
  • Cline Owens Fine Art Auction
  • Cornette de Saint-Cyr
  • Est-Ouest Auctions Co.,Ltd
  • Finarte
  • Germann
  • Henry Aldridge & Son
  • Heritage Auctions
  • Ivey-Selkirk Auctioneers
  • Lempertz
  • Leslie Hindman Auctioneers
  • Michaan's Auctions
  • Millon-Robert
  • Phillips de Pury & Company
  • Rago Arts and Auction Center
  • Skinner
  • Sotheby's
  • Sothebys Arcade
  • Susanins
  • Van Ham
  • Wright
  • Wright's Auction Service

Back to the Top