The exhibition will be comprised of works spanning the years 2000 to 2003 in which the artist incorporates different techniques such as oil on linen, monumental tempera paintings on denim and frescoes on plaster panels.
Paintings 2000 - 2003
Reception for the artist: Saturday, September 27, 2003, 6–8 PM
The Los Angeles Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce the second part of a two-venue exhibition of new paintings by Francesco Clemente; the first of which was at the Gagosian Chelsea space this past spring. The exhibition will be comprised of works spanning the years 2000 to 2003 in which the artist incorporates different techniques such as oil on linen, monumental tempera paintings on denim and frescoes on plaster panels. This is Clemente’s first exhibition in Los Angeles since his 1996 exhibition at Gagosian Gallery.
Most provocative in the various series of paintings brought together in this exhibition is the near elimination of the human figure, a motif that has been a signature element in Clemente’s past oeuvre. The paintings are infused with a sense of loss, a stoic gratitude and a poetic depiction of time’s passage. As Clemente has said in a recent interview, “The nature of painting is to redeem an undercurrent of sadness.â€
“Clemente, a painter with a Baudelairean poetic sensibility, parries the shocks of ongoing modernity in these paintings…A wanderer throughout cultures ancient and modern, he is acutely conscious of the evanescence of human triumph and human follyâ€.
-David Rimanelli, The Haunting
A fully illustrated catalogue, including an essay by David Rimanelli accompanies the exhibition.
For further information please contact the gallery.
Gagosian Gallery
BEVERLY HILLS
456 NORTH CAMDEN DRIVE
BEVERLY HILLS CA 90210
TEL 310 271 9400
FAX 310 271 9420