biography
Francesco Clemente, the only son of Judge Marchese Lorenzo Clemente di San Luca and his wife, Bianca Quarto, was born into a conservative family in Naples on March 23, 1952. He attended a high school for the humanities, and focussed on Latin, Greek, and Italian literature, along with classic and modern philosophic themes. After graduating in 1970, he began studying architecture in Rome that same year. There, in the following year, the Galleria Valle Giulia featured his conceptual collages with photographs in a solo show, even though he had never formally studied art.
As a child, Clemente had traveled a great deal with his parents. In 1973 he and his mentor, Alighiero Boetti, went to Afghanistan. Later, Clemente began traveling regularly to India, where he set up a studio in Madras in 1978. He studied Hinduism, worked with handmade paper, paints, and the fabrics of South India, and also employed local artists as his assistants. His watercolors, pastels, monotypes, and prints feature abstract symbols, hieroglyphics, and body-oriented motifs on the themes of sexuality and death. Along with Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola de Maria, and Mimmo Paladino, Clemente is one of the representatives of what Achille Bonita Oliva called the Transavanguardia.
An important theme in Clemente's art remains the observation of the self, in the process of which he always maintains a spatial and psychological distance to his body and the bodies of those he depicts. He is interested in the transitions from one person to the next, and the way that a mood can suddenly change to its exact opposite. His interest in sixteenth-century classic Italian painting led him to begin painting frescoes in 1980. He also began making miniatures and mosaics. Clemente finds his themes in art history, the cinema, and television, and he has always had a love for literature. He has participated in the Venice Biennials of 1980, 1988, 1993, and 1997. In 1980, Bischofberger bought Clemente's Autoritratto come un giardino (Self-Portrait as a Garden), from the Basel Kunsthalle exhibition, 7 Junge Künstler aus Italien (7 Young Italian Artists). That same year, the artist had his first show in New York, and began working there more and more, so that he finally acquired a studio there in 1981. In 1983 he and his family moved to New York. Clemente, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat began working on the Collaborations in 1984. He has also collaborated several times with writers Allan Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Robert Creeley, John Wieners, and others.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Francesco Clemente: Windows, Mestre Projects, Albany
Francesco Clemente: Self Portraits as the Twelve Apostles, Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg, Derneburg
Francesco Clemente: Wings of Desire, Chateau La Coste, Provence
2022
Francesco Clemente, The Albertina Museum, Vienna
2019
Francesco Clemente: Works 1987-2018, The Brant Foundation, Connecticut
2018
Francesco Clemente: Black Light, Centre de Cultura Contemporania, Barcelona
2017
Francesco Clemente: Standing with Truth, Villa Rufolo, Ravello
2016
Francesco Clemente, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderale
2015
Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India, Rubin Museum of Art, New York (2014-2015)
2014
Francesco Clemente: Two Tents, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2013
Francesco Clemente, Palazzo Sant'Elia, Palermo
2012
Francesco Clemente, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2011
Francesco Clemente: The Tarots, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Francesco Clemente: Palimpsest, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
Francesco Clemente: Captive Pleasures, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich (2010-2011)
2009
Francesco Clemente: Shipwreck with the Spectator 1974-2004, MADRE Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples
2008
Francesco Clemente: Drawings, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
2006
Francesco Clemente, MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Rome
2005/06
Francesco Clemente: Self Portraits, Gagosian Gallery, London
2005
Francesco Clemente, Jablonka Galerie, Cologne
2004
Francesco Clemente: New Works, Irish Museum of Modern Art; traveling to Dublin and Reykjavik Art Museum, Island
Francesco Clemente: Remembered by Heart, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
Francesco Clemente: Tandoori Satori and Commonplace, The Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
2003
Francesco Clemente: Paintings 2000-2003, Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills and New York
2002
Francesco Clemente: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
Clemente in Taos, The Harwood Museum of Art, The University of New Mexico, Taos
Francesco Clemente: The Book of the Sea, Gagosian Gallery, London
2001
Terra Fragile, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
Francesco Clemente: Palladium, Museo Civico d'Arte Contemporanea, Trento; traveling to Neue Galerie im Höhmann Haus, Augsburg (2000-2001)
2000
New Works, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich (1999-2000)
Francesco Clemente – Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum New York, New York; traveling to Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao
1998
Francesco Clemente: Three New Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, New York
1997
Portraits, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Indian Watercolours, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; traveling to Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Modern Art Museum, Indianapolis
Francesco Clemente: Anamorphosis, Gagosian Gallery, New York
1996
Francesco Clemente: Paintings of the Gate, Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich
Francesco Clemente: New Works, Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
1995
Ex Libris, Château de Chenonceau, Chenonceaux
Mothers of Hope, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/M
1994
Francesco Clemente: Tree of Life, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich
Francesco Clemente: Two Horizons, Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo
Francesco Clemente: Early Morning Exercises; Works on paper 1971-1994, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Francesco Clemente: Purgatorio, Gagosian Gallery, New York
1993/94
Francesco Clemente: The Black Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, New York
1993
The Black Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, New York
1992
War Usury Pestilence Death, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
1991
The Black Book, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
Bestarium, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/M
Testa Coda, Gagosian Gallery, New York; traveling to Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel, Basel; Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm
Francesco Clemente: Three Worlds, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; traveling to Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford/Connecticut; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Royal Academy of Arts London, London (1990-1991)
1989
The Gold Paintings, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
1988
Funerary Paintings, Dia Art Foundation, New York
1987
Affreschi: Pinturas al fresco, La Fundacion Caja de Pensiones, Madrid
Works on Paper from 1977-1979, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
The Argentario Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Funerary Paintings, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
1986
Departure of the Argonaut, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1985/86
Francesco Clemente, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; traveling to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Art, Dallas; University Art Museum, Berkley; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1985
Prints 1981-1985, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Il viaggiatore napoletano. 73 Zeichnungen von 1971-1978, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel
Francesco Clemente: Selbstportraits, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
1984
Currents, ICA, Boston
Pastelle. Francesco Clemente, Nationalgalerie, Berlin; traveling to Museum Folkwang, Essen; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tuebingen
1983
The Fourteen Stations, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; traveling to Groninger Museum, Groningen; Galerie des Musées, Nice; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; Moderna Museet, Stockholm
1982
Watercolours, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
1981
Francesco Clemente: Matrix 46, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley
Centric I: Francesco Clemente, The Art Museum and Galleries, California State University, Long Beach
Francesco Clemente: Matrix 70, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Pinxit
New Works, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
1980
Francesco Clemente, Padigilone d'Arte Contemporaniea, Milan