Francesco Clemente

Overview

Painting is like making love. You cannot ask, 'How do you do it?' But, hopefully, it is beautiful.

Working across different media, Francesco Clemente’s works revolve around the themes of sexuality and spirituality, and had positioned himself as a major component in the revitalization of Italian art beginning in the 1980s.

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Biography

Clemente is greatly influenced by mysticism, traditional art and the culture of India.

Francesco Clemente was born in 1952 in Naples, Italy. He went to Rome to study architecture, where he met friend and mentor Alighiero Boetti who encouraged a career in art. Clemente is considered to be one of the leaders of neo-expressionism. He is greatly influenced by mysticism, traditional art and the culture of India. His subjects––particularly the female form and his own image––explore themes surrounding eroticism, myth, and spirituality, with non-western symbols characterizing his dream-like work. His work is shown and collected by major institutions including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao, MoMA, New York, and Tate Modern,...