Contributed by David Carrier / I have been writing a book about art in the churches of Naples’ historic center. There I also visited the new Kunsthalle Madre, which contains an elaborate two-story permanent installation by Francesco Clemente called “Ave Ovo.” Like baroque Catholic art, Clemente’s work features elaborate symbolism. While the old masters employed it to present church dogma, his symbolism is personal and more elusive. In Naples, however, both exhibit a penchant for sensory overload: more is more. In his splendid show “Summer Love in the Fall,” now at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Clemente still uses some of the same symbols – male and female body parts, his own portrait – but the colors in its 23 paintings are more subdued. The title may well refer to the psychic place of erotic images in his later life as well as the timing of this exhibition, for now his work seems more serene.
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Since seeing his retrospective at the Guggenheim some 25 years ago, I have considered Clemente the most inventive living figurative artist. He reinvented the varied subjects of his painting as he went along, and he has continued to do so with strikingly original new works. Brush shows him making a self-portrait using a brush; in Cigarette that self-portrait reappears in a balloon of smoke; and in Fireworks pale sparks erupt above his head. The enigmatic watercolor Yellow presents a self-portrait lying flat in a box. Although he has spoken of his friendships with Julian Schnabel and David Salle, and his admiration for the art of India, where he has lived and worked, his work remains distinctive and almost sui generis. He offers no hint of how his subjects fit together analytically, but Clemente’s gentle symbolism doesn’t call for a solution. Indeed, it resists one. “The goal of my work is to remind the viewer of the necessity to be fluid,” he has said, “to be in a constant state of transformation.” What matters most is the visual facility of his ensembles of images: however complex, they register decisively, which permits the viewer to proceed.
Among the most accomplished gallery shows I have seen, “Summer Love in the Fall” is hung sparsely on white walls to allow the individual paintings – most medium-sized, a few small – to subordinate themselves gracefully to the expressive effect of the whole. It has often been noted that because the best galleries have more resources and fewer visitors, they can create more effective installations than great museums, which can be an awkward reality for art critics to accommodate. No doubt there is something escapist about an installation so exquisitely arranged in such a spacious setting, but I am not sure that is a legitimate complaint. When I left Lévy Gorvy Dayan, I was a bit let down to be walking on the streets of the Upper East Side, even though the traditional goal of art is to draw you out of yourself and into a wider world. But hermetic perfection too can be exhilarating and challenging. Clemente is that rare famous artist whose work has little to do with contemporary aesthetic conceits that tend to center on politics and identity. In a sense, he aspires, with consistent success, to provide a fully democratic visual environment.
“Francesco Clemente: Summer Love in the Fall,” Lévy Gorvy Dayan, 19 East 64th Street, New York, NY. Through December 21, 2024.
About the author: David Carrier is a former professor at Carnegie Mellon University; Getty Scholar; and Clark Fellow. He has published art criticism in Apollo, artcritical, Artforum, Artus, and Burlington Magazine, and has been a guest editor for The Brooklyn Rail. He is a regular contributor to Two Coats of Paint.
