The Triennale di Milano presents a major retrospective of Francesco Clemente, titled "Francesco Clemente. In Between," curated by Francesca Pietropaolo and Robert Storr. The exhibition features around seventy works spanning five decades, including drawings, watercolors, pastels, frescoes, oils, tempera, and artist books. It highlights Clemente's self-portraiture, portraits of New York acquaintances like Warhol and Basquiat, and his deep engagement with Indian culture, as well as recent works referencing contemporary upheavals such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The show is the last initiative under Stefano Boeri's presidency at the Triennale.
This retrospective matters because it fills a significant gap in Italian exhibitions of Clemente, one of Italy's most internationally celebrated artists, whose last major Italian retrospectives were in 2009 and 2013. By bringing together works from public and private collections, including pieces never before shown in Italy, the exhibition offers a comprehensive view of Clemente's cross-cultural, spiritually infused practice. It also underscores the Triennale's role in presenting major contemporary art figures and marks a transitional moment for the institution as Boeri's tenure concludes.