Weight+of+Light,+The

Date: 2006
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/2013/2013.89.2_1a.jpg?itok=2k4i9vec width="263" height="242" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/weight-light-86642"]] || Title: **The Weight of Light**

Artist: **Francesco Clemente** Born: Naples, Italy 1952

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 74 x 81 in. (188.0 x 205.7 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the James F. Dicke Family© 2006, Francesco Clemente

Accession: 2013.89.2 ||

Francesco Clemente has been active in the art world since the early 1970s, largely dividing his time between New York and India. Although he came of age during a period when Conceptual Art was the prevailing artistic trend, Clemente concentrated on representational imagery from the outset of his career. Over the last 40 years, he has become internationally known for vivid figurative paintings that depict the human form, particularly female bodies, as well as mystical and spiritual iconography. Much of Clemente’s work draws on his extensive travel through India and his abiding interest in Hindu spiritual practices. Clemente is equally fascinated by the syncretic nature of other non-Western religions.
 * About the Artwork: **

Between 2006 and 2008, the artist took several extended trips to Brazil where he studied the customs and iconography of Candomble, a centuries-old Afro-Brazilian religion rooted in animism—the idea that nature and the universe itself possess souls. //The Weight of Light// is part of a large body of work from this period in which Clemente uses colors and icons associated with the religion. According to the artist, the gray-green color of the background refers to the Atlantic Ocean. The image of the chain is a universal symbol of strength as well as an important motif in Candomble creation myths. The spectrum of colors adorning the chain may signify the rainbow serpent of Candomble mythology—yet another symbol of creation. Finally, the bright orange outlines of the chain suggest the naturally occurring element of iron, a vital commodity in contemporary Brazil and a recurring element in Candomble traditions.

Francesco Clemente has exhibited in countless international venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museo Madre in Naples, Italy; Blain | Southern Gallery in London; and the Jablonka Galerie in Cologne, Germany. His most recent solo exhibitions consist of oil and watercolor paintings. These shows include Nostalgia/Utopia, at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York; Palimpsest, which showed at the Schirn Kunstahalle in Frankfurt, Germany; and The Tarots, at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.


 * Resources: **

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