Francesco Clemente, Life is Paradise (Hand signed by Francesco Clemente), 1999

Francesco Clemente

Life is Paradise (Hand signed by Francesco Clemente), 1999

Hardback monograph (hand signed by Francesco Clemente)

Boldy signed by Francesco Clemente on the title page

15 × 10 1/4 × 1 inches

Unframed

Hand signed for the present owners at NeueHouse event "Ron Arad, Francesco Clemente, Ben Genocchio."

Book information:
Publisher ‏ : ‎ powerHouse Books; First Edition (October 1, 1999)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 193 pages with color illustrations

Publisher's blurb:
Contains a collection of frescoes, watercolors, oil paintings, and pastels.
Reviews:
Life Is Paradise is a gorgeous book, one that any Clemente aficionado would not want to be without. It includes a sensitive, smart essay by Vincent Katz, an illuminating interview with the artist, and nearly 100 very large, beautifully printed reproductions of Clemente's portraits in watercolor, oil, and dry media. As Katz writes, "One can wallow for days in these faces." Lavishly produced and designed (with one egregious exception: in a series of watercolors the face of the subject falls within the "gutter," or centerfold, of the book, making it absolutely impossible to see), Life Is Paradise is divided into thematic chapters. Some rubrics--"Poets," "Oil on Wood," "Great Expectations," "Children," "Devi," "New York Muses," "Voices"--are literal: Robert Creeley and the late Allen Ginsberg are in the "Poets" section, for example. However, some are more wide-ranging: the watercolors include a vast selection of famous faces (as well as more poets, like John Ashbery). And the number of celebrities is staggering: Anne Bancroft, Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Morrison, Fran Lebowitz, Philip Glass, and dozens of others. But it is the art that mesmerizes the reader. Some of Clemente's portraits are phenomenally precise and delicate; some are violent, dark, and wild; the eyes are always dominant; but all are "done" differently, seen differently, presented differently--masklike on one page, psychologically engaging on the next. Clemente's inventiveness--and this book represents only a small part of his vast output--can leave a reader breathless, wondering how many ways there are to approach the combination of a human countenance and a blank page. --Peggy Moorman

About Francesco Clemente:
Francesco Clemente was born in Naples, Italy, in 1952. After an early academic background in classical languages and literature, he briefly enrolled as an architecture student at the University of Rome, in 1970. Throughout the 1970s he exhibited drawings, altered photographs and conceptual works across Europe. Since 1973 he has frequently resided and worked in India. In 1981 Clemente moved to New York City, where he currently lives with his wife and children. The artist has often engaged in collaborations, both in India with local craftsmen, and in New York with artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, among others. He has published many works in conjunction with poets, including John Wieners, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, and Rene Ricard. Clemente's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including traveling retrospectives of his pastels (Nationalgalerie, Berlin: 1984–85) and drawings (Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel: 1987–89). His works on paper were the focus of a full retrospective organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1990, which traveled within the United States and to the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1991). His works on paper have been shown in exhibitions organized by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1994–95) and at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna (1999). The artist's comprehensive oeuvre was the subject of a retrospective exhibition, Clemente, mounted by the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1999–2000), which traveled to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2000). Most recently, a survey of the artist's work was organized by the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (2002–03).

Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery