NEW YORK, NY.- The Rubin Museum of Art is presenting a major survey on the work of Francesco Clemente that illuminates the previously underexplored influence of Indian culture on the acclaimed artist’s oeuvre. On view from September 5, 2014 to February 2, 2015, Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India marks the first-ever exhibition dedicated to the work that Clemente created while living in India, an extended period of cross-cultural exchange that has shaped the artist’s creative vocabulary over the past four decades. Rarely exhibited works from Clemente’s early practice are being displayed alongside new sculptures created especially for the Rubin exhibition, highlighting Clemente’s continuing engagement with Indian artistic traditions.

Organized by Rubin Museum Assistant Curator Beth Citron, the exhibition features approximately 20 iconic works, including paintings, sculpture, and five fragile, large-scale works on paper that have not been on public view in nearly 15 years. Together, the featured artworks represent important milestones and episodes in Clemente’s engagement with the diverse cultures and communities of India and provide audiences with a narrative of the evolution of his practice. Inspired by India marks Clemente’s first solo museum exhibition in New York in more than a decade, and is an opportunity to experience his work from a new perspective.

Since his first visits to India in the 1970s, Clemente has immersed himself in the daily experiences of India’s local cultures, establishing collaborations with artisans and incorporating regionally diverse styles, mediums, and modes into his work. From massive Pop-inflected paintings that evoke Tamil signboards, to canvasses that draw on the erotic iconography of temples in the eastern state of Orissa, to recent large- scale sculptures created in the Rajasthani metalworking tradition, the impact of Clemente’s travels in India are felt in the range and innovative quality of his practice.

“Clemente’s travels throughout India inspired a rich and personal visual language that transformed ancient symbols, myths, and ideas into dreamlike landscapes and representations of animals and human figures. His work is rooted in his experiences with local craftspeople and the use of traditional and artisanal materials, exceptional as he developed this vocabulary at a time when many artists were focused on conceptual art and industrial production,” said Citron. “The exhibition is an opportunity to explore the powerful impact of South Asian cultures on the work of leading, contemporary artists—reinforcing the importance of artistic activity emanating from this region on artists from across the globe.”

Exhibition highlights include:

• Two Painters (1980) – one of Clemente’s earliest large-scale paintings created in India, depicting two painters in a kind of existential combat;

• Four Corners (1985) – perhaps Clemente’s most iconic large-scale work, produced in the style of Tamil signboards;

• Black Book watercolors (1989) – intimate representations that evoke the erotic imagery seen in temples in Orissa;

• Four new sculptures with metal bases that address themes and iconography from Clemente’s earlier works on paper. For example, one of the sculptures features a partial painting of a moon, referring directly to the painting Moon in the exhibition, and another features the same Ouroboros serpent seen in Hunger. The relationship between these new works and the large-scale paintings reflect a generation of the artist’s engagement with different sites and materials in India.