An exhibition at the MAXXI (the National Museum of the Arts of the XXI Century) of Rome, of the work of Francesco Clemente, a cosmopolitan artist who lives and works in New York, India and Italy.
Born in Naples in 1952, Francesco Clemente began writing poetry and drawing at a very young age. In 1971 he held his first exhibition in Rome, and in 1973 he traveled for the first time in India, to Delhi and in 1974 to Afghanistan. In 1979 he returned to Italy and was included by Achille Bonito Oliva in the Transavanguardia, together with Cucchi, Chia, De Maria and Paladino, with whom he took part in important group shows. In 1981 he moved to New York where he came into contact with Warhol, Basquiat (with whom he made a series of works) and Keith Haring, developing an intense network of relationships with poets like John Wieners, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley. In the years to follow he has lived in New York (where he still resides), India and Italy, while his works have been featured in solo and group shows all over the world.