We are relocating!
In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time.
If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.
Francesco Clemente, an Italian contemporary artist, boasts a diverse background having lived in Italy, India, and New York City. His artistic style draws inspiration from traditional Indian art and culture. Clemente’s expertise spans various mediums, including drawing, fresco, graphics, mosaic, oils, and sculpture. He rose to prominence as a key figure in the Italian Transavanguardia movement of the 1980s, which rejected Formalism and conceptual art in favor of figurative art and Symbolism.
Born in 1952 in Naples, located in the southern region of Campania in Italy, Clemente briefly attended the faculty of architecture at the Sapienza, the university of Rome. However, he did not obtain a degree before shifting his focus entirely to his artistic pursuits. In Rome, he rubbed shoulders with fellow contemporary artists such as Luigi Ontani, Alighiero Boetti, and the American Cy Twombly. Boetti, who was a decade older, took on the role of both friend and mentor, and the two even ventured to Afghanistan in 1974. With Ontani, Clemente performed at the Galleria L’Attico. Despite his associations with artists from the Arte povera movement and his admiration for others such as Pino Pascali and Michelangelo Pistoletto, Clemente chose to concentrate on paper as his primary medium. He produced ink drawings based on his dreams and memories from his childhood and showcased his collages in a solo exhibition at the Galleria Giulia in Rome in 1971.
Clemente’s fascination with India began in 1973 on his first of many visits to the country. He eventually set up a studio in Madras (now Chennai) and immersed himself in the religious and folk traditions of India, as well as the country’s traditional art and crafts. In 1976 and 1977, he visited the library of the Theosophical Society of Madras to examine its religious literature. In 1980 and 1981, he collaborated with miniature painters from Orissa on his project “Francesco Clemente Pinxit”; a collection of twenty-four gouaches on antique hand-made rag paper.
www.ftn-books.com has several Clemente publications available:
