FRANCESCO CLEMENTE Of an Historical Nature text JOHN NEWSOM portrait SANTE D’ORAZIO 16 17 Regarding painting - The experience of etc. Endless imagination... which begs the But what is ‘truth’ in relationship to the ‘surprise’ is a holy moment. This may question, “Where do you go when you’ve idea of a New York painter? Or the New be the only moment necessary. It’s not a gone everywhere?” You go to New York! York School for that matter? It’s not a title state of the mind nor body, but one of the that belongs strictly to the Greenbergian spirit. Goya perceived this revelation in New York is ever the port city. A home painters of the 1950’s, on the contrary - the the mental asylum of Saragossa, Van Gogh away from home of Clemente’s original ‘truth’ is an old tire, worn out on the road. among the wheat fields of Arles, Pollock birthplace of Naples, Italy. It makes perfect Miles and miles of canvas, tons of paint, a on the ground in East Hampton - the best sense that New York would eventually thousand brushes and rivers of linseed oil painters always and must - Francesco become he and his wife’s nest, along and turpentine, dinner parties stretching Clemente as well. Granted, of the above with their family of four children. New deep into the night and wee mornings, mentioned names (to sight a few), York City has a specificity to it as well discussions in crazy and refined places Clemente is the only ‘Italian’, and as we as the ‘otherness’. A walking city lends with some of the most absurd, wild and know - Italian painters require a bit more itself to an explorer, as it did and does endlessly intriguing minds of an age. THIS desertion. Let’s begin with Alighiero for Francesco Clemente. Exhibiting is the truth of a New York painter... and Boetti... Although Boetti was/is classified throughout the 1980’s primarily at then 9-11. as a ‘conceptualist’, the historical nature SperoneWestwater in New York, of his work resonates beyond mere Clemente’s work arose to the world stage Arguably, Clemente’s greatest and most ideas to embrace whole-heartedly the and consciousness. Collaborating with significant body of work had yet to be urgency of poetics, leaning towards a various poets on illuminated texts, such produced. The period was 2000-2003. painting mindset. A direct correlation as ‘White Shroud’ with then good friend The exhibition that Clemente mounted can be drawn between this notion and Allen Ginsberg in 1983, or Savino’s spanned the entire West 24th Street gallery the early works on paper of a then epic masterpiece ‘The Departure of the of Larry Gagosian. The art-world was younger and impressionable Francesco Argonaut’ that Clemente illuminated still very much reeling from the epic Clemente. Boetti was Clemente’s active as well in 1983. These poetic outlets attack and devastation brought onto the mentor during the time-frame of the late expanded the vision even more so and city on 9-11. Francesco Clemente faced 1960’s early 70’s. While the accompanying were beautifully installed in Clemente’s this narrative head on in one of the most geographical travels that were undertaken mid-career Guggenheim retrospective epically charged painting exhibitions in by both Clemente and the senior artist in 1999. Also, within the collaborative New York City history. It was a full meal, of ten years, Boetti - led to Afghanistan, framework, in 1984 Clemente was and was permeated with an indelible it became the southern locale of India approached by the Swiss art dealer Bruno feeling of loss and sadness. One could feel where Clemente had his artistic revelation, Bischofberger and asked to begin passing humanity slipping away. The figure was his ‘holy moment’. (I decided to write some paintings around with Andy Warhol reduced to emblematic material of other this piece independently of interviewing and Jean Michel-Basquiat. These rather forms - a house of cards, musical notes, a Francesco Clemente, opting instead for large canvases resulted in a tremendous torn libretto, an overturned bowl, a drifting a broader interpretation from one painter collaborative body of work between the cloud on a mundane horizon. The works to another.) In past interviews though, three painters and now only grow stronger included in the exhibition ranged from Clemente mentions various inspirational with age and time. Exhibited recently smaller paintings on linen, to monumental troupes of the 1960’s as touchstones that in their totality at The Federal Art and tempra paintings on denim, and frescos eventually would act as pillars as well as Exhibtion Hall in Bonn, Germany - the on plaster panels. The show was panned springboards for his early iconography. Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente collaborative by critics across the board. Maybe it was Ancient wisdom, various architectural paintings resound with buoyant innovation still to soon for such an intimate statement spaces, The Beats, eroticism, global and focuses each of the three painters by one of New York’s greatest artistic religions and the esoteric, Hendrix, LSD, artistic temperaments. Then, in the winter sons. Because as we know, sometimes the ex-pats and the muses - these are just a of 1987 - February 22nd to be exact - Andy subtlest move can be the grandest gesture. few examples of the deep content needed Warhol died at New York Hospital-Cornell But the painters got it, they understood in order to fill the active imagination of Medical Center in New York City of a the level of commitment of that particular a serious painter not willing to accept heart attack related to surgery. The New exhibition of Clemente’s. Now that history mediocracy and easy outs. So, Clemente York art-world would never be the same. It has again moved on in some time, one can created an encyclopedic volume of had lost it’s great sage, the king was dead. look back and appreciate the immensity of drawings while traveling in India - pastels, Shortly thereafter Jean-Michel Basquiat that particular body of work. See, paintings graphites, pen and inks, and watercolors. died of a heroin overdose on August 12th, stay exactly the same. It’s the world This early body of work located what 1988 in his downtown Manhattan atelier. around them that changes. To the degree would later blossom into the defining Granted, Francesco Clemente’s ‘star’, if that Clemente was able to pinpoint the backbone of Clemente’s oeuvre, a self- you will, rose way above the isolation feeling of that loss of innocence for New replenishing well of images that he would of stardom that success had brought to York City, as well as the reverberance felt return to again and again. The intellectual the likes of actually both of the a-for- throughout the other locales of the world rigor of artists coming up at the same mentioned painters above. Clemente is in which Clemente had ties to, this was time as Clemente under such giants of and remains to be primarily a ‘painter’s meaning, this was structure as a whole, yet influence as Joseph Beuys and Andy painter’. Mourning past... the 1980’s past... fractured, like America on 9-12-2011. It Warhol, created a new way of looking at new modes of artistic expression were would be the final New York exhibition to the world through the use of contemporary ushered in via the 1990’s approaching date of Francesco Clemente’s at Gagosian art. Reintroducing traditional aspects of the new millennium. Clemente continued Gallery. the figure, self-portraiture, and classical to exhibit regularly in New York and materials - this challenged the very notion abroad, most notably at Gagosian Gallery. A garden compost pile is made up of old of the conceptualists’ stance of the period Exhibition after exhibition would unfold debris and detritus. The organic waste prior to the 1980’s. The advent of the continued chapters of Clemente’s ever is spread on young top soil. The waste digital age had yet to present itself, artists evolving body of work. From shows such then becomes a replenishing fertilizer were still capable of getting ‘lost’, and as ‘Testa Coda’, ‘The Black Paintings’, for new growth for new plants. In the there was no other example of an artist ‘Purgatorio’, ‘Anamorphosis’, ‘The years to follow leading up to present more diligent and aligned to this task than Book of the Sea’, etc... these are not your day, Clemente made changes. He moved Franceso Clemente. His travels took him average post-modern paintings. Only his primary studio from Manhattan to throughout the world, discovering and relentless questioning along with an almost Brooklyn, yet keeping the old location Above: dissecting world cultures and adapting unconscious or sublime sense of self can in Manhattan as an additional space. them to a bracingly beautiful sense of produce such pictorial weight. Looking He walked and biked across the bridge, House of Cards painting. From ephemeral frescos to at Rothko, Kline, even DeKooning - the back and forth and back and forth. He 2001 heavily ladened oils on linen, temperas, true foundational painters of the New York was creating again anew with a returned Oil on linen miniatures (which he would employ local School, including Philip Guston - this is focus. Portraiture had always played an 68 x 60-1/2in. artisans to assist in the production), textiles what Clemente became as a painter in important roll in this work. Clemente Fisher Landau Center for the Arts, New York to a degree, and paintings on assemblages, the late 1990’s, a true New York painter. continued work on a series of portraits 18 19 of friends, family, colleagues, artists, in Manhattan respectively.