Francesco Clemente
Our Backs to the Sea Far From Our Native Land 4-3-2021, 2021
Oil on canvas
144 x 144 inches (365.8 x 365.8 cm)
© Francesco Clemente Photo by John Berens
The painter discusses his latest work, which was inspired by Homer's "The Iliad" and is on view at Vito Schnabel gallery.
“Even the most optimistic person today will think that there is a cognitive error in the air,” says Francesco Clemente, seated on the orange sofa within his sprawling second floor artist studio overlooking Broadway in Manhattan. “Maybe things are not really known the way they should be known. And so I decided to go back to the beginning of the era,” he continues to explain. “I needed to go back in time and see where all this psychotic behavior began.”