Francesco Clemente, Italian (1952 - )

 
b. 1952, Naples, Italy
Francesco Clemente was born in Naples, Italy, in 1952, and since the 1970s, has produced a rich and complex body of work. His expressive portrayal of the human body and use of traditional materials departed radically from the Conceptualist aesthetic that dominated the late 1960s and 1970s. An inveterate traveler, Clemente has diversified his imagery, engaging a wide range of cultural traditions and stylistic sources through his travels to Italy, India, and New York, as well as the American Southwest and Caribbean.

Clemente moved to Rome in 1970 to study architecture during the social unrest that transformed Italy after 1968. His friends and mentors at this time included Alighiero Boetti and Luigi Ontani, as well as Joseph Beuys and Cy Twombly. Since 1973, Clemente has traveled to India each year, drawing inspiration from the country’s mystical heritage and contemporary arts. In 1980, at the Venice Biennale, the artist’s eclectic imagery commanded international attention and contributed to the international revival of Expressionism [more] at the time.

In 1981, Clemente moved to New York permanently, drawn to the city’s ethnic and cultural diversity. He rapidly expanded the scope of his work, producing his first large-scale oil paintings, and participated in numerous collaborative projects, creating a group of paintings with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, and illuminating poetry by Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners, among others. Throughout his career, Clemente has continuously produced a richly varied body of work, using such diverse mediums as oil, watercolor, ink, pastel, fresco, and sculpture interchangeably.