For the first time in Spain, we presented a selection from the series New York Muses by Francesco Clemente (Naples, 1952).

Daughters of the god Zeus and the titaness Mnemosyne, the nine muses of Greek mythology inspired artists and presided over the arts and sciences. In the artist’s words, “There is a kind of woman in New York who is truly unique, martial, a kind of amazon who goes down the street without looking right or left. She is strong enough to catch your attention but she doesn’t play the game. For me that is very poetical. I draw these women larger than life, and although you feel very close to them when you look at them, the picture keeps part of them private because their bodies are left outside.”

Francesco Clemente - New York Muses - Exhibitions - Lopez de la Serna CAC

These pastels on paper were included in the exhibition Portraits by Clemente at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburg in 1997. Within the body of the Italian painter work, this series shows to us the transition between the male portraits of poets and artists of the Eighties and the later portraits of the New York's high society. These close-up portraits of anonymous women chosen by the artist represent the spirit of the city. They resolutely look at the viewer with their hypnotic gazes, elongated necks and hieratic attitude. All of them have a powerful appearance like the goddess of ancient times or the Greek sculptures of caryatids. Blending of races and origins, these women are the mirror image of the American melting pot. Likewise, they depict the willingness of cultural assimilation of the artist with his references both to the antiquity and the Italian painting of the sixteenth century, without forgetting the traditional arts of countries like India, whose importance is key in his background.

Since his participation at the Venice Biennial in 1980 until now, Francesco Clemente has become a classic of the contemporary figurative painting. Linked in his beginnings to the Transavantgarde theorized by Achille Bonito Oliva, he soon became independent from too restricted stylistic frames, and he found his personal and unique style. His thirst for knowledge and his liking for Eastern cultures and philosophies have resulted in the addition of the Mediterranean chromatic tradition to the Hindu spirituality and to the Modernity of the city par excellence, New York. These images, between the oneiric and realistic, remind us the historical-artistic Italian legacy and the innocence and immediacy of the handmade creations made by the traditional Indian artists.

Installations Views

Installations Views Thumbnails

New York Muses XI, 1995. Pastel on paper. 101,5 x 71 cm / 40 x 28 in (detail)

Francesco Clemente's work is part of the most important contemporary art collections all around the world, such as the MOMA and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Cleveland Museum of Art and Farnsworth Art Museum in the United States; Tate Britain, London; MNAM-Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Germany; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Italy; Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland; Fundación La Caixa, Barcelone; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among many others. The Fundación Caja Madrid dedicated to him an individual exhibition in 1987. In 1999 the Guggenheim Museum in New York organized a retrospective that traveled to the Guggenheim Bilbao the following year. Since 1981 Clemente lives between New York, Madras (India), and Rome.