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拍品专文
“I have always felt art implied a relationship, an emotional deal between people. The first thing you have to do is imagine an audience for your picture. Then you have to imagine the place where this work comes from. Then there is the audience that is actually there. Without patronage an artist can’t exist. After all, painting is a communal activity.” (F. Clemente, quoted by G. Mehta in “Unborn,” Clemente, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2000, p. 91)
Francesco Clemente’s Contemplation elegantly presents a serial study of a woman’s face, gracefully tilted back as through in deep thought in each of the four present canvases. The subject seems to evolve in each element, with her ears, nose and mouth blocked by crisp white, almost crystalline shapes that resemble crumpled paper or fabric. This enigmatic work, like many examples of Clemente’s output, suggests a sensual and dreamlike narrative, from an artist best known for his striking paintings that carry with them the tradition of several different cultural influences. Contemplation begs the question about the subject’s ability to perceive her surroundings, with certain senses seemingly blocked by vibrant interferences, while her eyes seem to exist as the only portal to her outside world.
Born in Naples, Francesco Clemente has led a nomadic life from an early age. Moving to India as a young man, Clemente was inspired by traditional Indian art practices associated with Tantra, which influenced his intricate painting process as well as his influence of eroticism and spirituality. Clemente later moved to New York City where he collaborated with several of the era’s leading artists, such as Warhol and Basquiat, as well as several Beat Generation poets. Clemente’s portraits captured the social climate of the time, as he chronicled the lives of New York City’s most vibrant artistic and literary figures.
Clemente played an important role in the resurgence of painting in the 1980’s, a time where conceptualism has long since rendered a new and painterly landscape. Contemplation serves as an example of Clemente’s inscrutable oeuvre, and showcases the extraordinary multicultural artist who created paintings that brought together the East and the West, and merged ancient tradition with the contemporary.
Francesco Clemente’s Contemplation elegantly presents a serial study of a woman’s face, gracefully tilted back as through in deep thought in each of the four present canvases. The subject seems to evolve in each element, with her ears, nose and mouth blocked by crisp white, almost crystalline shapes that resemble crumpled paper or fabric. This enigmatic work, like many examples of Clemente’s output, suggests a sensual and dreamlike narrative, from an artist best known for his striking paintings that carry with them the tradition of several different cultural influences. Contemplation begs the question about the subject’s ability to perceive her surroundings, with certain senses seemingly blocked by vibrant interferences, while her eyes seem to exist as the only portal to her outside world.
Born in Naples, Francesco Clemente has led a nomadic life from an early age. Moving to India as a young man, Clemente was inspired by traditional Indian art practices associated with Tantra, which influenced his intricate painting process as well as his influence of eroticism and spirituality. Clemente later moved to New York City where he collaborated with several of the era’s leading artists, such as Warhol and Basquiat, as well as several Beat Generation poets. Clemente’s portraits captured the social climate of the time, as he chronicled the lives of New York City’s most vibrant artistic and literary figures.
Clemente played an important role in the resurgence of painting in the 1980’s, a time where conceptualism has long since rendered a new and painterly landscape. Contemplation serves as an example of Clemente’s inscrutable oeuvre, and showcases the extraordinary multicultural artist who created paintings that brought together the East and the West, and merged ancient tradition with the contemporary.