Seascape
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
drypoint and softground etching in black on handmade Don Farnsworth paper
Dimensions
plate: 20 x 14.9 cm (7 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.) sheet: 62.9 x 29.9 cm (24 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Kathan Brown
Accession Number
2001.142.30
Art Historical Context
Francesco Clemente's *Seascape* (1981) captures the fluid mystery of the sea through intricate printmaking techniques. An Italian artist pivotal to the Transavanguardia—a 1980s Italian resurgence of expressive, figurative art—Clemente blends dreamlike symbolism with bold forms. This, a drypoint andground etching in black ink on luxurious handmade Don Farn paper, exemplifies his exploration of natural motifs infused with personal introspection. Drypoint involves scratching directly into a metal plate, yielding rich, velvety lines evoke the sea's turbulent textures, while softground etchingprin...
About the Artist
Francesco Clemente
Francesco Clemente was born on March 23, 1952, in Naples, Italy, into an aristocratic family as the only son of Judge Marchese Lorenzo Clemente di San Luca and his wife, Bianca Quarto. Drawn to art from childhood through dreamlike drawings inspired by recollections, he moved to Rome in 1970 to study architecture at Sapienza University but soon abandoned it for visual arts. There, he met the concep...