Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/clementeOOclem CLEMENTE CLEMENTE GuggenheimMUSEur Clorh cover: Alpana Bawa and Francesco < llementt Published on the occasion of the exhibition dct.nl of CLEMENTE Dust jacket and paper cover, fronc Francesco Clemente, Clemente, 1 999 (cat. no. 148); back: Organized by Lisa Dennison detail of SM1999 (cat. no. I Frontispiece: Robert Mapplethorp* ' ente, 1982. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York October 8, 1999-January 9. 2000 "The Gold Paintings" by Gregory < or$Oj from Fraro and Adam Fuss, the Gold Paintings (Zuri< h: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Clemente, Corso, Edition Bruno Bischofberger, 1990). Reprinted bj permission of February 14-June 4, 2000 Gregory Corso. "Flower" and "Place" by Robert Creeley, from Francesco Clemente and Creeley. It (Zurich: Edition Bruno 199 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. permission of Roberi ( reeley. Bischofbcrger , 1989). Reprinted by All rights reserved. rei i Robert ( "Chain" by Robert Creeley, from 1 rfeoi L993 All Francesco Clemente works © Francesco Clemente. permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Reprinted by "Loop." "The Swan." and "The Skull" by Robert Creeley, from - Robert Creeley. Reprinted bj permission 1 1998 0-89207-222-9 ift and Death. ( Sentences" by 0-8109-6917-3 of New Directions Publishing !orp. "Pastel me: Allen Ginsberg, selections published In ( linsberg 1999). Prim. Guggenheim Museum Publications Poem. 1993 1997 (New York: HarperFlamingo, Ginsberg Literary Trust. 1071 Fifth Avenue permission of Allen New York, New York 10128 Hardcover edition distributed by Harry N. Abrams 100 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10011 Design: Matsumoto Incorporated, New York Editor: Edward V. Production Elizabeth Lev) Esrhei Yun Printed m Germany by Cantz Contents Return 19 Francesco Clemente: Once You Begin the Journey You Never Lisa Dennison 37 I Li>a Dennison with entries by Craig Houser 89 Unborn Gita Mehta Creeley with "Flower!' "Chain: and "Place" by Robert and "The Gold Paintings" by Gregory Corso 123 Bestiary Ettore Sottsass "Panel Sentence*" by Allen Ginsberg with "Loof by Robert Creeley and 173 Conversion to Her Robert Creeley Prayers 2 3 1 Amulets and Jyotindra ]ain 293 Sky Gus Van Sant Skull" by Robert Creeley with 'The Swan" and "The 329 Rooms Francesco Pellizzi Collaborations 391 Books. Palimpsests. Raymond Foye 442 Chronology Rene Ricard History 484 Selected Exhibition Compiled hy Melanie Marino 496 Selected Bibliography Reproductions 500 Index of Lenders to the Exhibition Sperone Westwater, New York Albnglu- Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam Dons Ammann, Thomas Ammann Fine Art Matthew and Ins Strauss. Rancho Sann I c Kelly-Gilles Bensimon ( .llifornia Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich Virginia Museum oi Fine Arts. Richmond Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich Angela Westwater Stephanie Seymour Brant Anonymous lenders The Brant Foundation. Greenwich. Connecticut Carmignac Gestion. Paris Francesco and Alba Clemente, New York The Cleveland Museum of Art Como Group Contemporary Art Fundacio"la Caixa." Barcelona Beat Cum Mia and Patrick Demarchelicr Anthony d'Offay Gallery. London Stefan T. Edlis Raymond Foye Ga^osian Gallery. New York Walter Haas. Zurich and Puerto Vallarta. Mexico Alex Katz Thomas and Janine Koerfer-Weill Robert and Mary Looker Dr. Erich Marx, Berlin Mugrabi Collection Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main Tatum O'Neal OfTendiche Kunstsammlung Basel. Kupferstichkabinett PaincWebber Group Inc.. New York Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Caracas Philadelphia Museum of Art Jean Pigozzi, Switzerland Ron and Ann Pizzuti, Columbus, Ohio Cynthia Hazen Polsky Rubell Family Collections David Salle Sanders Collection, Amsterdam Jacqueline Schnabel Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo Joan Sonnabend Gian Enzo Sperone, New York The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Honorary Trustees in Perpetuity Trustees Solomon R. Guggenheim Giovanni Agnelli Justin K. Thannhauser Jon Imanol Azua Peggy Guggenheim Peter M. Brant Mary Sharp Cronson Honorary Chairman Elizabeth T. Dingman Engelberg Peter Lawson-Johnston Gail May Daniel Filipacchi Chairman Barbara Jonas Koch Peter B. Lewis David H. Thomas Krens Barbara Lane Vice-Presidents Peter Lawson-Johnston Wendy L-J. McNeil Samuel LeFrak John S. Wadsworth, Jr. J. Peter B. Lewis Wendy L-J. McNeil Vice-President and Treasurer Edward H. Meyer Stephen C. Swid Frederick W. Re id Richard A. Rifkind Director Denise Saul Thomas Krens Terry Semel James B. Sherwood Secretary Raja W. Sidawi Edward F. Rover Seymour Slive Stephen C. Swid Honorary Trustee John S. Wadsworth, Jr. Claude Pompidou Cornel West John Wilmerding Trustees Ex Officio William T.Ylvisakcr Dakis Joannou Benjamin B. Rauch Director Emeritus Thomas M. Mcsscr exhibition as parr of its HUGO BOSS is the sponsor of this ongoing supporr of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Aits Additional support provided by the National Endowment foi the Sponsor Statement combine a between two worlds. His paintings and drawings The artist Francesco Clemente is a traveler closely woven web of Western cultural tradition. He fashions a mysterious Eastern symbolism with elements that ultimately defy interpretation. of the familiar and the strange in images of cultural differences York, Clemente has explored the depths At home in Madras. Rome, and New to forge a link between the rational quality of his work lies in his ability like no other artist. The transmittal culture. intuitive tendenc.es of Eastern currents of Western trad.tion and the mediums, brings to light a retrospective of the artists work in all Clemente, the first comprehensive profound self-revelation. stories, symbolic eroticism, and visual poetry composed of amusing art and ,n fash.on. important sources of inspiration, both in Cultural curiosity and tolerance are conviction and of our long-term an emphatic expression ofthis Our support of the Clemente exhibition is contemporary art. Guggenheim Foundation in support of collaboration with the Solomon R. HUGO BOSS collection. 157 7, x 118 7. inches (400 x 300 cm). Private I. My House, 1982. Tempera on linen, Foreword Thomas Krens The history of contemporary art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum began in 1937, with the establishment of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, whose core mission encompassed collecting and exhibiting the art of the present. In recent decades, retrospective exhibitions devoted to contemporary artists generations have occupied a special place in this history, and have included artists of different and nationalities, from Joseph Beuys and Roy Lichtenstein to Ross Bleckner and Rebecca Horn. past, of With the Clemente retrospective, the Guggenheim takes on the role, as it has in the in the United States since 1981, no interpreting the art of its time. Although Francesco Clemente has lived or range. This exhibition thus offers museum in this country has mounted a survey of comparable scale from the 1970s through the present. audiences the first opportunity to assess the artist's production around eight themes that graph the Expanding the internal logic of Clemente's work, the show is organized artists labyrinthine cosmology of images and ideas. the attention of an international audience, and At the Venice Biennak in 1980, Clemente commanded deeply influential in the international revival of his rich and eclectic visual imagery was considered pastel, in different mediums, such as oil, watercolor. Expressionism in the 1980s. Working simultaneously draws with great erudition and intuition from diverse ink drawing, fresco, and sculpture, Clemente the vast range of his visual and conceptual ideas. cultural periods and stylistic sources to give body to production and the singular personal vision it expresses has The exceptional scope and quality of his artistic millennium with this retrospective exhibition. determined the Guggenheim's decision to close the Clemente to give a lecture at the Williams College Our friendship dates back to 1987. when I invited friends since; we share an affinity Director. The artist and I have remained Museum of Art. where I was then 1980s, and where the artist has traveled regularly I worked in the early for the art and culture of India, where 1994. and since then, he has with Clemente about this particular project in since 1973 I began discussions York had .1 steady involvement in our collecting and programming activities at the museum m New as well as at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. In 1997, the museum acquired ten extraordinar) works on paper by the artist, which were then included in the exhibition From Diirer to Rauschenberg: A Quintessence o) Drawing, Masterworks from the Albertina and the Guggenheim, The artist was also commissioned to execute a site-specific cycle of paintings for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Exploring such diverse subjects as the family, the Empedoclean philosophy of the tour elements, and the complexity of the self, the seventeen monumental paintings that make up this installation, entitled La Stanza della Madre, are among the most important works the artist has accomplished to date. With ereat enthusiasm. Lisa Dennison, the museum's Deputy Director and Chief Curator, assumed curarorship of the exhibition, and her expertise in contemporary painting has been invaluable in dealing with the artist and his evolving interactions with the museum. I would like to express sincere thanks to her for her expert direction of this retrospective and to the Guggenheim's start who have been instrumental