Francesco Clemente: Travel Diary

The idea of taking a journey has always been central to Clemente's artistic practice as both a theme and a goal. His visual language draws upon the emblems and symbols of both Eastern and Western mystical traditions, reanimating them through personal experiences. Exploring themes of identity, spirituality, and mythology, Clemente's work is distinguished by a rich use of allegory, symbolism, and iconography inspired by his extensive travels throughout India, Afghanistan, China, Brazil, North Africa, and the Caribbean. Each work in Travel Diary relates to a different place and a distinct experience of the past. The past is essential, for it indicates responsibility. Without responsibility, the artist cannot invent the future, nor sustain the hope that emerges from imagining it. As Clemente notes, "Today, hope in the future may be the only sensible political act that remains." The question arises: does Clemente travel in search of a home, or in an effort to leave behind the notion of a home? In this exhibition, home appears as a tree house in his painting, My Tree House (2015-16). Upon it, Clemente raises a white flag– a gesture of surrender to the cruelty of life, and at the same time, to the sweetness of painting and its redemptive power.