FRANCESCO CLEMENTE

A story well told is a story that one recognizes, as if you’ve heard it before. Watercolors are about fluidity and the experience of male verses female is about fluidity. It’s a simple encounter, watercolors, man, woman, and the relentless desire of life to live.

—Francesco Clemente

An unusual encounter led to the present cycle of twenty-one watercolors, entitled A Story Well Told: while on the outskirts of Varanasi, Francesco Clemente caught a glimpse of a female figure walking down a wooden path, whereupon she turned into a tree. He has described the figure encountered as Daphne, the mythological being well known from Ovid’s 1st-century account of Apollo and Daphne. Clemente, however, forges his own path, referencing not Ovid’s version of Daphne, but a figure existing outside of time-honored narratives. In watercolors, the artist finds a perfect match for his ambition to represent the fluidity of identity, time, and space.

FRANCESCO CLEMENTE
A Story Well Told I–XXI
2013
Watercolor on paper
Twenty-one parts, each: 11 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches (29.5 x 21 cm)
Overall dimensions 455″ x 11 5/8″ FC-1020-20a
Courtesy of Francesco Clemente Studio; Collection of the Artist, New York
Photos: Tom Powel Imaging