Francesco Clemente & Carlos Basualdo in Conversation

The Brant Foundation Lecture Series Presents

Francesco Clemente & Carlos Basualdo in Conversation

941 North Street | Greenwich, CT 06831

Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. & Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Art Museum, and Francesco Clemente will be discussing works included in The Brant Foundation’s current exhibition, Francesco Clemente: Works 1978-2018 and their relationship to the rest of Clemente’s practice, as well as his life-long interest in India.

About Francesco Clemente:

Francesco Clemente is a contemporary artist who is known for exploring metaphysical questions of spirituality, mysticism, and the nature of the self. Often erotic, and at times violent in its subject matter, Clemente’s lyrical, emotional approach is expressed by his unique sense of color. Strongly influenced by literature and poetry, Clemente is a poet in his own right, with a vast lexicon of symbolic and metaphorical imagery that expands and transforms to tell an open-ended story.

Francesco Clemente’s exhibition at the Brant Foundation is a concise but extensive retrospective that will feature works from 1978 until 2018, marking 40 years of the artist’s life. The show is non- chronological, weaving together threads that have been a constant in Clemente’s long-spanning oeuvre, and presenting ideas and questions that persist for the artist throughout various transformations in medium. The exhibition includes self-portraits, portraits, multiple series of work on paper in watercolor and pastel, frescoes, several monumental oil paintings, and one tent. Executed in Rome, Varanasi, Jodhpur, Orissa, Pondicherry, Madras, New York, and Taos over the last four decades, the works have travelled far and been dispersed among museum collections and art patrons who have been a part of Clemente’s history. They now return for Francesco Clemente: 1978- 2018, each work with its own story to tell.

About The Brant Foundation Lecture Series:

The Brant Foundation Lecture Series, established in 2013, offers opportunities for individuals to hear directly from some of the most influential voices in the art world today.  The lectures, designed to coincide with The Brant Foundation’s exhibitions, are held in conjunction with art institutions and schools in the surrounding area, expanding the forum for discourse across a variety of platforms and venues. Lectures are open to the public and free of charge.