Mandala for Crusoe: New works by Francesco Clemente at Blain/Southern in London

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, March 28, 2024


Mandala for Crusoe: New works by Francesco Clemente at Blain/Southern in London
Francesco Clemente, Chasing the star, 2012. Pigments on linen, 198.1 x 236.2 cm.



LONDON.- Blain|Southern announced an exhibition of new works by Francesco Clemente, Mandala for Crusoe, the artist’s first London show in seven years. This recent series brings together 14 paintings which continue Clemente’s singular pictorial language, gathering together myriad cultural references and merging timeless symbols, iconic imagery and philosophies. Inspired by the symbolism of the originally Buddhist and Hindu Mandala, this form, combined with allusions to more classical and mythological tropes, becomes apertinent description of the world as a whole, now and throughout history.

Eastern spiritual traditions identify the mandala as a conduit to a deeper level of consciousness, allowing the meditator a sense of oneness with the cosmos. Conversely, at the centre of Clemente’s mandala is the empty, mundane life: a man smokes as he reads a newspaper, while another busies himself with digital technology. However, it is from this emptiness that a world of imagination arises. Indeed, the artist affirms the objectivity of the imagination not as sentimental fantasy, but as a function of the mind that leads to a harmony with both the self and others – a necessity for life. The group of exhibited paintings are thus Clemente’s tools; like Crusoe shipwrecked in isolation, he composes and narrates a belief in a common experience free of cultural divides or contemporary materialism.

Since the 1970s, Clemente has divided his time between New York and Varanasi in India, feeling a nomadic affinity with the contemplative visual tradition of both the East and West; while the roots of his painterly vision are in the frescoes of the Italian Renaissance, historical Indian imagery and the Romanticism of William Blake are equally pervasive. This is particularly evident in works such as Candy and Chloe at the gate (2012), which portrays a scene where the Warhol starlet, Candy Darling, performs alongside the modern-day actress Chloë Sevigny, and The Ark (2012), where a chorus of animals from Noah’s ark sit atop an ancient Greek temple and float upon a sea of Sanskrit text.

Clemente’s use of materials is equally heterogeneous, utilising raw linen, milk paint, verdigris, silver pigment, mica, oil sticks and lithographic ink, which are combined in different permutations. They create a variety of painterly surfaces, which mirror his notion of the self as a fragmentary experience where the only constant is ‘the continuity of discontinuity’, which in itself reflects the principle of the Mandala, which states that ‘what is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere’.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue with an essay by Sir Norman Rosenthal, who writes: “To analyse Francesco Clemente's paintings is inevitably to look into the world of modern dreams and desires. But they are dreams that have a history and a culture both personal and general [that is] intentionally poetic.”










Today's News

November 30, 2012

"The thousand and one nights" exhibition casts a spell at the Arab World Institute in Paris

Christie's London Autumn Russian Art Week Sales achieve a combined $26.7 million

Sotheby's London November 2012 Russian Art Sales Series concludes realising $33 million

Napoleon's letter in which he vows to 'blow up Kremlin' for sale in Fontainebleau

Mandala for Crusoe: New works by Francesco Clemente at Blain/Southern in London

Jimi Hendrix owned and worn 'gypsy style' vest leads Heritage Auctions entertainment and music event

Sotheby's Paris announces sale of Art Nouveau masterpieces formerly in the Garden Museum, Nagoya

Exhibition in Los Angeles explores maps and monuments through diverse works

Survey of American artist Gary Simmons's career opens at Metro Pictures in New York

Exhibition of new paintings by Carroll Dunham opens at Gladstone Gallery in New York

Toledo Museum of Art acquires sculpture by noted Spanish artist Jaume Plensa

New mixed media paintings by American artist Greg Miller at Scream Gallery in London

'World's largest horse-drawn hearse: 19th-century carriage is a Czech museum hit

Tick, Tack, Tick, Tack, Tick: Stuart Whipps exhibits at David Dale Gallery in Glasgow

Crusader sword captured from Mamluk Arsena in Alexandria gives £163,250 edge to Bonhams sale

"Bubbles and bankruptcy: Financial crises in Britain since 1700" opens at the British Museum

Entire collection of decorative arts recently acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia goes on display

Survey of the work by contemporary photographer Jeff Wall opens at the National Gallery of Victoria

Sotheby's Milan sells a small canvas by Giorgio Morandi for 420,750 Euro

New series of Photorealist oil paintings by Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri on view at Mike Weiss Gallery




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful