Francesco Clemente – Studio Visit | TateShots
Summary
TLDRFrancesco Clemente, a New York-based artist, discusses his unique approach to art, emphasizing organic creativity and geographical influences. Having lived in Italy, India, and New York, his work is shaped by remembrance and the desire to step outside cultural circles to view them more fully. He views his art as ritualistic, generating memory and guidance for daily life. Collaboration plays a key role, working with poets like Allen Ginsberg and artists like Basquiat. His upcoming exhibit centers on nostalgia, utopia, and the belief that memory fuels hope for a more interesting future.
Takeaways
- 🎨 Francesco Clemente is an artist and painter based in New York City.
- 🌿 He views his work as organic and non-linear, expanding from a central point.
- 🗺️ Clemente moved to New York in 1980 from India, and his artistic journey has been influenced by geography rather than history.
- 🔄 He often creates art in one place while being inspired or nostalgic for another, which gives his work a sense of remembrance.
- 🔮 Rituals are essential to his artistic process, where creating forms and gestures can evoke memories that guide daily life.
- 🤝 Collaboration is a core element of his practice, reflecting his belief in a fragmented identity. He has worked with craftsmen in India and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Robert Feeny in New York.
- 🎨 Clemente has also collaborated with notable painters such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was his neighbor, and Francesco Wawro.
- 💡 He is currently working on a series of 10 paintings, drawing inspiration from various writers, artists, and fictional figures.
- 🌀 The theme of nostalgia is a recurring motif in his work, which he views as an 'engine of utopia'—connecting memory with hope for the future.
- 🌟 Clemente emphasizes that believing in a past also signifies a belief in a more interesting and hopeful future.
Q & A
Who is Francesco Clemente and what is his profession?
-Francesco Clemente is an artist and painter who lives in New York City.
How does Francesco Clemente describe his artistic process?
-Clemente describes his artistic process as organic and expanding from a center, rather than linear. He views his work as fluid, growing in various directions.
Why did Francesco Clemente move to New York City in 1980?
-Clemente moved to New York City in 1980 after living in India. He felt that geography offered a way out of the cultural crisis that marked his generation in Italy.
How does Clemente view geography and history in relation to his work?
-Clemente believes that by focusing on geography rather than history, he can escape the dead-end of cultural crisis. He uses travel to expand his perspective and artistic expression.
How does nostalgia influence Francesco Clemente’s work?
-Nostalgia plays a significant role in Clemente’s work, as he constantly reflects on the places he has lived. For example, when in New York, he misses India, and when in India, he thinks of Italy. Nostalgia fuels his sense of utopia, where memories shape his hopes for the future.
What role does ritual play in Francesco Clemente’s art?
-Clemente sees his work as a form of ritual. By making the correct gestures and forms, he believes that art generates a type of memory that can guide one's daily life.
How does collaboration fit into Francesco Clemente’s artistic practice?
-Collaboration is a key part of Clemente's work. He has worked with Indian craftsmen, New York poets like Allen Ginsberg and Robert Feeny, and painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Wawro. These collaborations help challenge his tastes and self-perception.
What is Francesco Clemente’s view on identity?
-Clemente believes that identity is fragmented, and that individuals are not singular but are composed of many different identities. This idea is reflected in his collaborative work.
What themes does Clemente explore in his upcoming show?
-Clemente’s upcoming show features 10 paintings inspired by various writers, artists, and fictional figures, including deities from different traditions. Themes of nostalgia and utopia are central to the works.
What does Francesco Clemente mean by 'nostalgia is the engine of utopia'?
-Clemente suggests that nostalgia, or the remembrance of the past, fuels the hope for a better future. If one believes in the past, one also believes in the future, and this optimism drives his utopian vision.
Outlines
🎨 The Artist's Journey and Organic Approach to Painting
Francesco Clemente introduces himself as a painter living in New York City. He describes his approach to art as non-linear, comparing it to something organic that expands from a center. Clemente highlights his decision to move to New York from India in 1980, driven by a desire to escape the historical crisis in Italy and explore different geographies. He believes stepping outside one's familiar environment is necessary to gain perspective and reflects on how he creates art in one place while thinking about another. The concept of remembrance plays a crucial role in his work, as he frequently contemplates the places he has been and the rituals associated with them.
🪔 The Importance of Ritual and Memory in Art
Clemente expresses his deep connection to rituals, which he sees as central to his creative process. He explains that performing the correct gesture and using the right form in art can evoke memories that guide one's life. His studio is filled with meaningful objects that serve as reminders of what his work should feel like. These objects anchor him in his artistic practice, blending the personal and the ritualistic. His art becomes a vehicle for maintaining and accessing memories, making the creative act a meditative and intentional process.
🤝 Collaboration and Fragmented Identity in Art
For Clemente, collaboration is an essential part of his artistic identity. He believes that human identity is fragmented, with each person embodying multiple personas. This belief has led him to collaborate with a wide range of individuals, from Indian craftsmen to New York poets like Allen Ginsberg and Robert Feeny. He has also worked with artists like Basquiat, his neighbor, and painters of older generations, challenging his own tastes and self-perception through these interactions. Collaboration, for Clemente, becomes a way to explore and expand the multifaceted nature of identity.
🖼️ Themes of Nostalgia and Utopia in Art
Clemente discusses his current project, a series of ten paintings for which he is still considering titles, possibly 'Nostalgia Utopia' or 'My Family Tree.' Each painting draws inspiration from various writers, artists, or fictional figures, often tied to deities from different traditions. Nostalgia is a recurring theme in his work, but Clemente views it as more than a longing for the past; he sees it as the engine of utopia. According to him, memory fuels hope, and the belief in having a past is connected to the belief in a future. This optimistic view holds that the future will be more exciting and meaningful than the present.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Organic
💡Geography vs. History
💡Ritual
💡Collaboration
💡Fragmented Identity
💡Nostalgia
💡Utopia
💡Remembrance
💡New York, India, Italy
💡Memory
Highlights
Francesco Clemente describes his identity as a painter, noting that his work is organic and expanding from a center rather than linear.
He moved to New York in 1980 from India, explaining that he belongs to a generation in Italy marked by crisis.
Clemente found inspiration in geography rather than history as a way to escape the dead-end of his generation.
He emphasizes the importance of stepping outside of a circle to gain perspective as an artist.
Clemente’s work is deeply tied to remembrance, and he values the idea of ritual in his artistic process.
He believes that making the correct gesture and dealing with correct forms can generate memory that guides daily life.
Clemente's studio is filled with meaningful objects that remind him of what his own work should feel like.
Collaboration is key to his work, as he views identity as fragmented and finds it essential to collaborate with others.
He has worked with craftsmen in India and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Robert Feeny in New York.
Clemente has also collaborated with artists like Basquiat, who was his neighbor, and Wawro, an older artist.
His collaborations help challenge the limits of his tastes, inclinations, and sense of self.
Clemente is working on a group of 10 paintings for a show, though he is still searching for a title.
Potential titles for his show include 'Nostalgia Utopia' or 'My Family Tree,' reflecting his themes of memory and hope.
Each painting is inspired by a writer, artist, or fictional figure, blending cultural references with personal nostalgia.
Clemente believes nostalgia fuels utopia, asserting that memory creates hope for a future more interesting than the present.
Transcripts
Oh
I'm Francesco Clemente I'm an artist and
the painter I live in New York City
as a painter I don't think in linear
terms I see my work more as something
organic and expanding from a center
I came to New York in 1980 from India I
belong to a generation in Italy which
was marked by a great crisis and and I
thought that the way out of this
dead-end was to deliver my work to
geography rather than history so this
was my impulse to travel I also knew
that to see you know if the goal of an
artist is to see the circle the only way
to see the circle is to step out of it
and so I've been making work in India
thinking about Italy I've been making
work in Italy longing for New York I've
been making work in New York
missing India this idea of remembrance
is very important in my work
I'm very fond of rituals and I see my
work as a form of ritual in the sense
that if you make the correct gesture and
if you deal with the correct form you
are going to generate a form of memory
that can be of guidance in your daily
life and so I do have here in the studio
many objects that are meaningful to me
and they remind me of what my own work
should feel like
collaboration is part of my work because
in the assumption of my work is that our
identity is a fragmented identity that
were not just one person but many
persons I have collaborated in India
with craftsmen and that collaborated in
New York with poets particularly Allen
Ginsberg and Robert Feeny
and I've collaborated with painters
Basquiat was my neighbor across the
street from this studio Restylane and
with Wawro it was of an older generation
and from my mind and whom at the time
was not as a mind diseased today
challenging the limits of my taste of my
inclinations of my sense of self I'm
still looking for the title for this
show it is a group of 10 paintings
my ideal Tata would be nostalgia utopia
or it could be my family tree each of
the paintings is inspired by the writer
or an artist or a fictional figure like
a deity from a particular tradition and
they they relate to a sense of nostalgia
which is always present in my world but
there is a but nostalgia is just the
engine of utopia I mean if you have a
memory you have a hope and if you have
if you believe that we do have a past
you also believe that we have a future
and that the future is going to be more
interesting than the present
you
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