Francesco Clemente

Initially recognised as a principal figure in the Italian Transavanguardia movement of the 1980s and then for his unique vision for a truly multicultural art, Clemente embraces a nomadic strategy, living and working between India and the USA for over four decades. He became a well-known figure in the art scene of 1980s New York, collaborating on numerous paintings and projects with his peers Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and illuminating poetry by Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Rene Ricard.

Clemente's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including traveling retrospectives of his pastels (Nationalgalerie, Berlin) and drawings (Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel). His works on paper were the focus of a full retrospective organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which travelled within the United States and to the Royal Academy of Arts, London. His works on paper have been shown in exhibitions organized by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna . The artist's comprehensive oeuvre was the subject of a retrospective exhibition, Clemente, mounted by the Guggenheim Museum, New York, which travelled to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. Surveys of the artist's work have also been organized by the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Palazzo Sant’Elia, Palermo, and at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.