Synopsis "Francesco Clemente: Betweem Citation and Satire"
Formed in 1995 the Cv/VAR archive includes analytic essays on examples of Western art including: The Trinity by Masaccio at Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Vermeer's The Maidservant and Woman with a Balance; Velázquez court portraits, Cézanne, Salvador Dalí, Francis Bacon, Anthony Caro and Alison Wilding, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol, with reviews of exhibitions in public and private galleries.The collection of over 150 pieces reveals strands that bind the continuum of classic and contemporary art. Cv/VAR 155 publishes a review by James Cahill of an exhibition at Blain׀Southern by the renowned artist Francesco Clemente, (b.1952), his first show in London for seven years. The monograph includes comments by the artist which offer insights to the ideas which grounded their development. Clemente's work embodies a binding of different cultures; drawing on the Italian Renaissance, Eastern philosophy of Buddhism and the Mandala; formed in a life divided between New York and India. The Author: James Cahill combines writing, research and painting with a role at one of London's leading contemporary art galleries. He studied at the Courtauld Institute, where his research focused on British twentieth-century artists' explorations of crucifixion and obscenity. He is the co-author of a monograph on British artist Angus Fairhurst (2009), and has written catalogue essays for a number of contemporary art exhibitions, as well as reviews for various publications. He has lectured at the Architectural Association, London, on the paintings of Francis Bacon, and at Oxford University on Renaissance iconography in contemporary art. His current research looks at the afterlife of ancient Greece and Rome in contemporary visual culture.
