James Cahill presents a review of a new exhibition by the renowned artist Francesco Clemente,(b.1952) exploring his first show in London for seven years. The monograph includes a conversation recorded with the artist in which he discusses the new paintings, and the ideas which grounded their development. Clemente embodies a binding of different cultures: the Western Italian Renaissance, Eastern philosophy of Buddhism and the Mandala; formed in a life divided between New York and India. The exhibition of fourteen works at Blain|Southern, Hanover Square, is entitled 'Mandala for Crusoe' and runs until 26th January 2013. Francesco Clemente (b. 1952, Naples, Italy) is a renowned artist from the Neo-Expressionist movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. From 1970 he studied architecture at the University of Rome, and began to exhibit his drawings, photographs and conceptual works in Europe. From 1973, he travelled regularly to India, and in 1981 he moved to New York.
He collaborated with close friends, notably the poets Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley, and reacting against a wave of anti-painting sentiment among critical circles, Clemente initiated a series of collaborative paintings with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Since the mid-1980s, Clemente's work has been the subject of many international solo exhibitions, including; Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1984 - 5); Kunstmuseum Basel (1987); Philadelphia Museum of Art (1990); Royal Academy of Arts, London (1990); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1994 - 5); Guggenheim Museum, New York (1999 - 2000); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004); Museo MAXXI, Rome (2006); Museum MADRE, Naples (2009); and more recently at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2011) and the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (2011). His works have also been included in notable group exhibitions including Documenta 7 in 1982 and the Venice Biennale in 1988 and 1995. Clemente is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (Blain|Southern)